Arms Open Wide by Sherri Gragg

Author:Sherri Gragg
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2014-02-01T00:00:00+00:00

UNCLEAN!

Praise the LORD, my soul;

all my inmost being, praise his holy name.

Praise the LORD, my soul,

and forget not all his benefits—

who forgives all your sins

and heals all your diseases,

who redeems your life from the pit

and crowns you with love and compassion,

who satisfies your desires with good things

so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

The LORD works righteousness

and justice for all the oppressed.

PSALM 103:1–6

BEFORE YOU BEGIN, READ LUKE 5:12–15

SOME MORNINGS, WHEN I first awakened, I would think it had all been just a terrible dream. Then I would roll over and see not my wife and children on their mats beside me in the pale early light, but rows of other men. And then I would remember that nightmare and reality were one.

My roommates were a macabre sort. Their limbs were swollen, and their bodies were covered with craterlike sores, deep, red pits rimmed with scaly white flesh. The nodules that covered their foreheads, lips, and chins were like countless pebbles strewn across the sand. Every man was missing at least a couple of fingers and toes. A few wretched souls had almost none at all. Their skin, which sagged and draped limply over their gaunt faces, looked like leather. Eyes were shrunken and weak. Noses had collapsed. The men trembled in their sleep as dry coughs shook their skeletal frames. These were the outcasts of society, the living dead.

Just like me.

This reality was a horror from which I could never awaken. I was a leper . . .

The day that changed everything started out like any other. I rolled my mat and placed it in the corner, a task much more difficult after I lost a thumb and two fingers to injuries. I was also missing my small toe on my right foot. It is very difficult to protect fingers and toes once all sensation in them is lost. My missing nose was another story entirely. It simply seemed to collapse in on itself bit by bit. All my eyelashes had fallen out, and my eyes had become so sensitive to the sunlight that I was limited to scavenging during certain hours of the day.

That morning I slowly made my way out of the house into the early morning light. My legs were heavy, but I pushed them as fast as I could. The incessant gnawing in my empty stomach was driving my feeble body to the city gate in hopes that someone passing by would pity me and toss a piece of bread my way.

I glanced down at my feet to see blood seeping into my sandal from a sore I could not feel on the bottom of my foot. Then I heard footsteps ahead. I drew to the far edge of the road, pulled the edge of my head covering across the lower half of my face to cover my nose, and shouted the designated warning just as the travelers came into sight.

“Unclean! Unclean!”

Their revulsion was immediate and obvious. Some were horrified by my wounds. Others were terrified such a fate could befall them.

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