Last week in a staff meeting, I reminded our staff about the ten lepers who were “cleansed” by Jesus in Luke 17.  I told of visiting a leper`s village in Brazil with my oldest son on his 13th birthday. Boy, did these lepers ever need to be “cleansed”.  They were living on the side of the Amazon River in rags. There were hundreds of them. They were so poor. Most had already lost fingers, noses and toes… with lots of dead skin remaining along with the odor of dirty skin. We walked with them to their church where we were to conduct a service.  Between the heat, the smell and seeing the missing parts, it was a hard walk.

When they found out that my son was 13 that day, they decided they wanted to give him gifts. One by one they stood and hit the pages of their Bibles with fingerless hands in order to turn to the verse they wanted to share with him for his birthday. Then they would stand and read it out loud to him. Neither of us has forgotten that day.

The ten lepers in Luke`s story all left cleansed, but one came back to say “Thank you” and he was made well. I think he had his missing parts restored while the other nine just had their dead skin removed. What a difference that “Thank you” made.

God loves it when we say thank you to Him and to others. Can I encourage you to pick a person each day to thank for what they mean to you? Just one person that you can acknowledge to let them know you care. Maybe that daily process will make us all well.

Have some wonderful, thankful holidays!

Ron