Walking along a path in the mountains of Honduras, a women heard a crying baby. As she came across the crying baby she found it to be a new born, only hours old, with the umbilical cord still attached, laying face down in the dirt to die. To save the babies life, she was brought to a ministry in Honduras called The Heart of Christ. The director of the ministry asked the police why they brought the child to her and they said “because we knew that if we brought her here, she would survive.” The baby arrived at the ministry close to death because her mother left her there to die and after spending the night being prayed over, she started to show more signs of life. They gave this little girl a name in Spanish that translates to “Sweet Miracle” because she was a sweet miracle from the Lord. This little girl is now 4 years old and she is filled with so much joy. She is also a few weeks away from going home to live with her biological mother. The same mother who left her for dead on that mountain side and that spent time in a correction facility for that decision. She is getting her daughter back. I would be surprised if you aren’t feeling anger about this story because when I found out that her mother was getting her back, I was not happy. One thing our host has been telling us this month is that we should not focus on what has happened to some of the children we get to be with but instead to look at what God is doing in their life now. And for Sweet Miracle, he is working on a story of redemption and forgiveness.
Recently I was reading about Naaman in 2 Kings 5. In this chapter, Naaman is the commander of a Syrian army called the Arameans. This group was one of the main enemies of Israel in this time and the story begins with Naaman leading his army into Israel on a raid. In this raid Naaman takes captive a young women as a maid for his wife. Naaman had a big problem and it was that he had leprosy. When his wives new maid found this out, she told them that Naaman needed to go see the prophet Elisha because Elisha could heal him. Naaman eventually went to the city of Dothan in Israel where Elisha sent his messenger out to meet him and give him the message to go and wash himself 7 times in the Jordan River. Naaman was not happy but he traveled the 25 miles to the Jordan River and did as Elisha had written. After washing 7 times, Naaman’s skin became healthy and he was healed!
As we look deeper into this story, Naaman was the army commander of Isreal’s enemy. The Jews enemy. In modern day terms this would be like if God healed the commander of ISIS from a disease. God chose to heal Naaman and by so doing forgive him for all the oppression he had put on his people. This man was an oppressor of God’s people and yet he was forgiven by God for his wrong doing. Jesus even referred to this story in Luke 4 to demonstrate that God’s grace is for all people. Even for those who have done unthinkable evils. Sometimes we have an entitlement feeling that we are the ones worthy of God’s grace and forgiveness but other people don’t because what they have done is worse then what we have done. Like this mother who left her baby girl to die. She is worthy of grace, redemption and forgiveness from the father just as we are and if the father forgives, shouldn’t we? It is important for us to remember that we all sin and are worthy of God’s grace and forgiveness.
