Leaping with the Lame

(This post was oringally published at http://www.followingthestar.org/)
Isaiah 35:5-7

In the ancient world, physical disabilities signified spiritual problems. If you were lame, people assumed your parents did something to cause it. If you could not speak, you possibly said something wrong to mute your tongue.

We might laugh and assume “we’d never do that.” The Facebook world, however, gives into the same mentality. On the surface, you on see what a person looks like but can not know the complete story. We see someone who is obese or gaunt, and we might presume gluttony or anorexia. We look at someone’s ethnicity and presume “good athlete” or “smart student.”

Isaiah imagines a different kind of world-- where water springs up in dry places, when pools are built in the Sahara. This kind of world causes believers to see the lame, mute, physically, mentally, socially, and culturally disabled and to look past the surface of their lives. Isaiah says, “You can’t judge a book….or a person….by her cover.” What we see on the outside is an invitation to us to leap with the lame, to see to the mute, to listen to the blind. And when we do, our hearts are the ones that are changed.