The following is my thoughts on the sermon Wilt Thou Be Made Whole? by Timothy J. Dyches. All quotes come from this sermon unless otherwise noted.
The story of the ten lepers in Luke 17:12-19 was a story about healing, when I was younger. Now I see it as a story about gratitude. The Savior loves all, clean and unclean alike. He waits and hopes we will choose his atoning gift to repent and be made whole. When we receive blessings, do we run off jubilant or do we turn back, fall down at His feet, and give thanks? I'm afraid I may be one of the nine.
Once I attended a sacrament meeting, where the speaker explained the difference between thankful and grateful. Consider the mother, who cooks for hours to provide a lovely holiday dinner. While it is eaten in just a few minutes, she spends those hours anticipating the joy it will give the receivers. One child eats with gusto and says, Thanks Mom. He then goes off to watch football with Dad in the family room. Another child eats with gusto and says, Thanks Mom. He then helps her clean the dishes and kitchen, showing a grateful heart. The first is thankful for the food. The second is grateful for a mother that loves and sacrifices to provide delicious food.
Forgiveness is part of gratitude. After all Jesus forgives all who ask. While some who offend us don't ask, we are still required to extend forgiveness to all men. Shortly after my sweet, treasured grandmother died 40 years ago, Aunt Wilma gave me a book that had belonged to my grandmother. Corrie Ten Boom's The Hiding Place changed the course of my life. It's lessons continue to refine my thinking. It's as if my beloved grandmother never left me and continued to teach me all these years. Corrie's experience of forgiving the concentration camp guard will forever remain imprinted on my brain. "...it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself." So it seems forgiving others is part of being made whole.
"Be assured the Savior still seeks to mend our souls and heal our hearts. He waits at the door and knocks. Let us answer by beginning again to pray, repent, forgive, and forget. Let us love God and serve our neighbor and stand in holy places with a life made clean....'...Wilt thou be made whole?' John 5:6"
