Disgusting

At times, we are filled with disgust.  The man dumpster diving his dinner with a coat caked with filth.  The woman who is so misshapen that she cannot look at herself in the mirror.  The person who is so sexually degraded, that we can't say anything to him.  Think for a moment of the most disgusting person you know, and how you don't want to have anything to do with them.

Now think of Jesus.  He looked at the leper, full of disease, limbs falling off and he embraced that man and said, "Be clean."  Jesus wasn't talking just about healing, he was saying that the man was no longer disgusting-- he was embraceable.

Consider Jesus embracing the person you find most disgusting, because he does.  Jesus doesn't see that person as someone to avoid, but as the image of God.

Now we are in Jesus' place.  If Jesus allowed his betrayer to kiss him, if Jesus prayed for those who killed him, if Jesus ate with the worst of sinners, then so should we who follow Jesus.

Embrace the unembracable.