Ed, my neighbor next door, has been having coffee more than he would like this last week.
"Now I know what it felt like to have forty days and nights of rain," complained Ed.
He has been so grumpy about the consistent rain here lately, that his regular coffee buddies have been avoiding him. When he is desperate for someone to talk, at he shows up here for a coffee.
Part way through his coffee and his long recital on how foul our weather has been, Ed spotted a growth I have developed on my left ear. First, he wanted to know if it was contagious.
"I have heard of ears being so dirty that you can grow potatoes in them, but that thing on your ear looks like a bunch of cauliflower. You should have it cut off or burnt off - it looks awful," said Ed with absolute conviction.
"When I'm this good looking it just adds character and distinction," I offered.
"Yeah, dream on," Ed answered. "More like your brain has erupted out your ear and is now only dry lava on your ear lobe. It makes you look like you have an elf ear on one side of your head," said Ed obsessively.
"I have talked to the doctor and if I want the growth removed I have to have it done by a plastic surgeon. So I could have this growth for a long time," I explained.
"Don't wait too long. If it gets much worse you'll scare little kids," Ed said in all seriousness.
Ed's reaction to the growth on my ear made me think of the reaction people had toward those in the Bible suffering from leprosy. People with leprosy not only suffered from a mean disease, but also the hard attitude that they needed to either get healed or go away and stay away. Leprosy was and still is a progressive infectious disease of the skin, flesh and nerves characterized by ulcers, white scaly scabs, deformities etc. Perhaps we still operate at a "go away and stay away unless you are healed" mentality to a large extent today if we are dealing with an infectious disease in others.
The difficulty is that when we have an infectious disease we are not quite as eager for the get healed or get lost method of dealing with it. I am thankful that today those with infectious diseases can be treated and helped.
One other thing that has not changed since Biblical times is our lack of thankfulness. When Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem travelling along the border between Samaria and Galilee, ten men with leprosy begged Jesus to have pity on them. Jesus did so by healing them of their leprosy, but only one of the ten men seeing that he was healed returned to Jesus to thank him.
Ed is unthankful for the rainy weather these days. When the weather is good he will say it is about time. I tell him to talk to God about the weather in prayer with an abundance of "please and thank you Lord" for it is God who holds the weather in his hands. Why should He give us good weather when we seldom thank Him for it?
