October 14, 2004
Wholeness Of Life
Read: Mark 2:1-12
Son, your sins are forgiven you. . . . Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house. —Mark 2:5,11
Bible In One Year: Isaiah 43-44; 1 Thessalonians 2
A social worker told her colleagues about a young boy in an urban ghetto who appeared to be little more than a bit of twisted human flesh. He had been struck by a car several months before and had not received proper medical attention.
Although not part of her caseload, the social worker took the boy to an orthopedist, who performed surgery on his legs. Two years later the boy walked into her office without crutches. His recovery was complete. The two embraced. "If I accomplish nothing else in my life," said the social worker to herself, "I have made a real difference with at least this one!"
She paused, then said to her colleagues, "This was all several years ago now. Where do you think that boy is today?" Some suggested that he might be a school teacher, others a physician or a social worker. With deep emotion, the woman responded, "No, he's in the penitentiary for one of the foulest crimes a human can commit. I was instrumental in teaching him how to walk again, but there was no one to teach him where to walk."
We must point people to Jesus. Through Him, those with broken bodies, broken dreams, broken homes, and broken hearts receive wholeness of life. —Haddon Robinson
A love for the sin-sick, the broken, the blind;
And help them to see by the way that we live
A wholeness of being that You long to give. —D. De Haan
A person may go wrong in many different directions but right in only one.