[11] Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus travelled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. [12] As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance [13] and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

[14] When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.

[15] One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. [16] He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.

[17] Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? [18] Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” [19] Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

Luke 17:11 (NIV

God is at work…have we noticed?

These are some of the things I noticed as I re-read this familiar story:

• Once again, Jesus accepts the outcasts of culture. Many of us need to take a good long look at those our culture (or an influential part of it) has declared to be outcasts. If we’re not siding with them, we may find that we’re not on the same side as Jesus either.
• There is always time to say thank you…especially when something great has happened, but also in myriad smaller things.
• Nine lepers were cured and cleansed…only one was healed…the one who realised the source of his healing and re-connected with Jesus.
• The ‘outsider’ is the only one who really gets it…it’s not just about being made well, it’s about being made whole and complete in every part of life through a relationship with God through Jesus. Have you ever witnessed a time when someone who’s not a Christian sees and understands while the Christians present seem slow to see and understand what God is doing?
• Have we noticed that life is full of miracles, and given thanks to God for all his amazing gifts to us.

“Of course life’s full of these miracles, but what being with Jesus taught us was to recognise the presence of God in all these things. We saw not just the goodness of the world, but the God-ness of it. We began to see divine fingerprints everywhere. We began to see connections, indeed to realise that everything and everyone is connected, and connected above all to God. We were coming to see that everything is a gift from the hands of a God who loves us more than we can begin to imagine, and that we only become who we truly are when we make that connection, when we close the circle.”

John Pritchard, “The Journey”, p 58