They Forgot to be Thankful

They Forgot to be Thankful  (E) Writer's Cramp Entry 11/26/18 A story from God's word #2175672 by Chris Breva

452 words

Prompt: "It may not be Thanksgiving anymore, but it’s still important to be thankful for everything you’ve got....
Today’s prompt is: write about someone who forgets to be thankful."

The Holy Bible tells a story in Luke 17: 11-17. In this story Jesus heals ten men who have leprosy. Now leprosy may not seem like that big of a deal to us who live in an age where leprosy is curable, but 2,000 years ago leprosy was serious. A leper was always an outcast because God told the priests to separate the lepers from the rest of the community to prevent the spread of the disease. Sure God could have cured the lepers but God chose not to do so. Instead He ordered the isolated. They would have to walk all by themselves or with other lepers and shout "Unclean" to anybody they encountered. It was not a happy lifestyle.

One day Jesus encountered ten lepers. Whether the lepers sought him out or not is unclear. It is likely that they did. What is clear is that they asked Jesus to heal them. He did and told them to go and show themselves to the priests. Lepers who no longer had leprosy were required to show themselves to the priest who would announce them cured and make a sacrifice in their behalf. So the ten headed off toward the priest as instructed and on the way their leprosy was cured. One of the ten stopped and returned to Jesus, thanking Him for curing Him and praising God for his cure.

I am not saying that the other nine were ungrateful. They were cured as well and probably went to the priests as required and were pronounced clean. However the foreigner among the ten recognized Jesus for who He truly was. Why go to a priest to offer a thank you sacrifice to God when you could walk directly up to God Himself and offer a sacrifice of praise? This was exactly what the tenth leper did! I'm not saying he did not eventually go and offer the sacrifice as the law required. He may have. The fact that he was not a Jew may have prevented him from doing so however. What remains though is that of the ten men cured, only one recognized Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God.

How often do we not say thank you? If I even wake up in the morning I am thankful! So many times we focus on what is wrong. Isn't it time to focus on what is right? If we make a list of all that is right in our lives we will find our problems diminish in comparison! Be thankful!