The Healing at the Pool
John 5:1-8 NIV
1Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. 2Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesdaa and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.b 5One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
7“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
8Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
I've been water walking since my rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis. The local pool is the same one I went to when I was a kid, back in the day when the girls had to wear painfully tight bathing caps with chin straps, while the boys got to swim free. It was a child's hangout and we were mostly unaware that we were exercising. Now my pool peeps look so old! What's worse is that I'm not out of place! Wearing bathing caps now means our dye jobs stay intact. As for the men, they have so much chest and back hair, that requiring some sort of upper body cap wouldn't be inappropriate. Enough walkers and canes are left at the pool side to give the impression that a healing service is taking place. Maybe there is something to be said for healing waters. I do walk better on land now then when I was first diagnosed, walking like patient zero of the zombie apocalypse. As it has been rightfully noted, my lifeguard walks on water.
Eva Cassidy - "Wade In the Water"
No comments:
Post a Comment