Physician, Heal Thyself!

Sitting down on the last row of the pews, I strained my eyes to hear him. He was standing right there on the altar, in front of the stained glass windows, wearing his old peach-colored saintly regalia-- he looked like he had been enlisted among the angels of heaven. I was listening hard and long, searching for words to burst through my veins. Just digging through the piles of literature for something to touch me inside, although I didn't know what.

I am his daughter, but there is a thin line between the man and my father. He preaches every Sunday, but yet our own home is torn apart into unrecognizable fragments by the devil himself. His words are true, but they are a lie to me. He is a physician to the people here, but he cannot heal himself.

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In this fictional story, a daughter observes her preacher man father distastefully. He is speaking the word of God, but it makes no sense to her because her home is torn apart...and the head of her home is the preacher man. In Luke Chapter 4, after reading the Torah in the synagogue, Jesus told the people that their salvation was already here. He told them that even though it was right in their faces, they weren't going to understand or recognize it. Even until the end...because they would tell him, "Physician, heal thyself."

When I read this I thought about how people sometimes observe the messenger. If the messenger does not look like what he's presenting, then they choose not to believe. I know it makes sense to you, but I want to tell you that sometimes the messenger will not look like the message.

You need to focus on the words, not the carrier. Yes, the carrier may look thin and shabby, but his words could carry so much power. The voice of God could be a still small voice, yet we may be waiting for a thunder-storm kind of voice. Our healing could come in such a small way as closing our eyes and opening them again, but we may be waiting for many years for a torrential impact-- possibly the laying of hands by a popular minister.

Things are not always the way they seem. They shouted "Physician, heal thyself!" when Jesus was on the cross dying, but they never thought to look at the grave to see if he had risen from the dead. Don't focus on the obvious, focus on those things that are not so obvious.