If thou wilt...

If someone was to ask me, 'What comes to mind when you hear the word 'leprosy?'' I would have told them the story of the 10 lepers found in the Bible. Well, that would have been my answer a month ago. But over the past four weeks I have been reading a bit about leprosy. And now if someone was to ask me that same question I would have a different answer. I think of me, and of the world we live in today.

Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease, and mainly affects the skin, the peripheral nerves, mucosa of the upper respiratory tract and the eyes. Early signs can be a darkened area of the skin where feeling is lost, numbness sets in...in a finger - in a toe. If the disease goes untreated it can spread and cause permanent damage. A person afflicted with leprosy can come to the point where they loose all feeling in their hands and feet. This being the case, they can step on a nail, a shard of glass, pick up the wrong end of a knife - and not feel a thing as it cuts into the skin. They could be walking - twist an ankle, and because they do not feel pain they keep walking, causing more damage as they do. They are past the point of feeling.

The Book of Mormon talks of being past feeling, "...ye have heard his voice from time to time; and he hath spoken unto you in a still small voice, but ye were past feeling, that ye could not feel his words..."

Sin, like leprosy, is a disease - and the more we choose to ignore our diseases, the more damaging they become and eventually we can come to the point where we do not feel the true effects of sin. And as a leper, we can pick up a knife by the blade and not feel the cut.

But Christ beckons to us, to come unto him and be healed. And he can, and he does. He can heal us to the point to where we are made whole, and every scar and every lesion is but a fleeting memory. Let us allow him to heal us, to take us from the bonds of sin so that we may use our feet, hands, and eyes to serve and follow him.

"And, behold, there came a leper and worshiped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed." Matt. 8:2-3