Do Not Be Like These People 2

"Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee on his way to Jerusalem. As he went into a village, ten men with a skin disease met him. They stood at a distance and shouted, “Jesus, Teacher, have mercy on us!”

When he saw them, he told them, “Show yourselves to the priests.” As they went, they were made clean. When one of them saw that he was healed, he turned back and praised God in a loud voice. He quickly bowed at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. (The man was a Samaritan.)

Jesus asked, “Weren’t ten men made clean? Where are the other nine? Only this foreigner came back to praise God.”

Jesus told the man, “Get up, and go home! Your faith has made you well." Luke 17:11-19


This is the second of this series.

And in the story above, it is obvious who we shouldn't be like. I know, that these people may be hard to relate to and yes, not many of us has a hard core skin disease nowadays.

But in case it is still not apparent, being "ungrateful" is someone who we should not become.

And we see examples of these every single day. And most are those who take for granted things seemingly unimportant, like clean drinking water, fresh breathable air, flying birds, trees, paved roads, wi-fi, certain freedoms or even being born in the country they were born in.

So let us say you were born in a not so prominent neighborhood in Los Angeles, California. And you go to or went to a not so good school. And you live or lived in a comparatively small house and growing up wore not so expensive clothes and ate simpler meals and rode on inexpensive cars or didn't have the best of everything else.

Now imagine for a moment that you were instead, like millions of other people, not born in the USA. Imagine being born in a developing or worse in a war torn country or a disease plague area in the world. Or even in the country or in the culture of your forefathers.

Okay, in case we still don't get, it should be easy enough to feel and be really grateful in knowing that just being born in the USA, you are more blessed than more than 80% of humanity today. And everyday millions of people wish to trade places with you as we see many try to move to the USA by any means possible (even though we hear many of those living in the US wanting out of the country for years but only knowing one or two who actually did).

And yes, in the story above, it was the person living in a foreign land who was grateful and none of the locals were.

Remember that, and remember to always have a feeling of gratitude and be thankful with the things you have and many of those you may take granted.

Don't Be Like Them Series