All Is Good

Gifted writer, Ann Voskamp  notes in her New York Times best seller, One Thousand Gifts, "All God makes is good....That which seems evil only seems so because of perspective, the way the eyes see the shadows.  Above the clouds, light never stops shining."  Pain and frustration, if taken at face value, can easily be described as "not good", but if they lead us to a prayer seeking God's help and grace to bear with them, they have achieved the good of leading us to God, whom we might otherwise have neglected, as is so often the case when everything seems to be going well. We do not "need" God at those times, and ignore him.  In today's Gospel, a leper falls prostrate before Jesus, as did the Magi, and pleads for his healing from this "evil" disease. . Jesus responds by granting his request.  Leprosy, of all things, helped bring the man to Jesus, and the news of his cure brought great crowds to listen to Jesus and be cured of their ailments. His plea reached far beyond his own healing.
So often we miss opportunities like this to present our needs, our sorrows, our impatience to Jesus and ask for a cure. We wallow in the pain and in our self-pity; we fail to see the sun shining behind our self-imposed clouds. Good is everywhere, grace is everywhere; we need to open our eyes and see it.
Bro. Rene