Day 8 - Enjoy the Silence

Matthew 12:9-13 ---

⁹Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, ¹⁰and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, they asked him, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"

¹¹He said to them, "If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out?¹²How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath."

¹³Then he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other.

Hi-yah Readers. So, right off the bat, read this passage slowly two times. Try to experience this story with you senses, put yourself in the scene. Can you feel the tension in the temple courts as the showdown occurs? Take a look at the man with the shrivelled hand. He is playing a role in this story I bet he thought would never of occurred. Read again, don't just read the words, experience them.

For a few minutes try this out. You are the person with the shrivelled hand. It wasn't always like this, you used to have a limb that was lush and full of blood and muscle. It was a hand you could use to touch and feel with, or to offer help and love. But now, it hangs at your side, constantly reminding you of disability, shame and disappointment. What do you think of those bolded words? Besides the fact that they're bolded? Remind you of any dryness and pain in your own life? Do you feel like your hands that once were lush, healthy, and lifted up in worship are now lifeless and dangling at your side? What is God saying to you? Journal it.

Sometimes I think we are afraid to show people our dryness, to be exposed, especially in front of other spiritual people. But that day, in the temple, in front of tons of people, Jesus simply said, "Stretch out your hand." Or in other words, "Expose to me your places of dryness and weakness, your symptoms of lifelessness and loss, so I can make you whole." That invitation makes me smile! Divine love and grace! To God, we're not objects of some silly law. We are objects of deep affection. Check out verses 11 to 12 again.

Okay, so before we wrap this up... imagine, Jesus saying right to you. Looking you in the eyes... "Stretch out your hand, your dryness, your shame, I want to make you whole again, you are valuable to me." Now, Journal away my friends.

God, please make me whole.

-Colton