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Jesus sent him away (1:43) 

It was pouring with rain - that dreary, damp drizzle that gets in under almost any coat - and it added an extra layer to my depressed mood. I'd been dropped off at my new boarding school and the reality was just beginning to sink in. All the comfort and familiarity of home stripped away to be replaced with hard wooden floors, unheated bedrooms and no privacy, absolutely none. I'd been sent away. There was much that was positive in my boarding school moment, but I doubt any of us forget that first abandonment. One friend still recalls his father's words when saying goodbye to him at 7 years old, 'We don't hug any more, son, we shake hands'. 

I wonder how our man with leprosy felt at being sent away. An initial feeling of being abandoned maybe, but quite quickly a growing sense of excitement. Now he was healed he could rejoin society, go back to his family, share in the weekly worship. Do we still get this thrill of new beginnings when we have found forgiveness in Christ and are able to start again with new eyes and new energy? Not sent away, then, but sent out!



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