Of Mosquito Bites and Bridging Boundaries

The following is an expanded/narrative version of the children's message about healing, both from physical ailments, and from our own prejudices.

There's been lots more mosquitoes recently after all the rain, and I am covered in bites.  The trouble is, I'm kind of extra allergic to these bites, and the itch doesn't go away for a long time, no matter what I do.  (This seems like it gets worse every year, and I have a whole shelf full of remedies to try and make them less itchy, but nothing works really all that well. Seriously, they itch for days, sometimes weeks. I'd give just about anything for a really good mosquito bite treatment).

Still, there's so many worse things you could have than mosquito bites.  Leprosy, for example, is a horrible disease where your skin basically falls off and you have all these open sores on your body.  It's also really contagious.  We have antibiotics that treat it now, but back in Biblical times, they didn't have any good medicines for it, so people really suffered.  Learn more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leprosy

This is the background of the story of Naaman.  Naaman was a wealthy and powerful man, but he suffered from leprosy.  No amount of money could cure him from his suffering.  His wife's servant girl, an Israelite, told her to send Naaman to the prophet Elisha in Israel in order to be healed.  So the king sent Naaman to be healed, along with lots of expensive gifts to buy his way to being healed. (In fact, the king of Israel was terrified that Naaman was coming, because he thought the king was playing a trick on him and setting a trap to attack him).  However, the prophet Elisha calmed his king's fears, and when Naaman came to the prophet's house, Elisha told him to simply wash in the Jordan and he would be healed.

Now, Naaman was angry, because he expected a more impressive treatment, something that would be worthy of his might and status.  However, his own servants finally convinced him to follow the simple instructions, and trust that they would work.  He washed in the Jordan and was indeed healed!

There were a couple kinds of healings that took place that day.  First, Naaman was healed of his leprosy.  Second, he learned that a simple man with a simple answer could be more powerful than all of Naaman's might and wealth.  Third, the king learned that a foreign ruler and his general could need his help, rather than only be ready to destroy him and his kingdom.  Not only physical ailments, but also prejudices, were healed that day.

Sometimes we are asked to help people we'd rather not, and we have all sorts of reasons for not wanting to. It's important to be safe, but also, it's important to examine our own prejudices and ask ourselves whether God is calling us to something greater than what we knew possible before.  It is just as much a miracle to heal human divisions as it is to heal any other kind of human suffering.  Thanks be to God!