Call Me Cripple

My good friend, BethAnn, uses metal forearm crutches to help her walk.  We were together recently, and a new acquaintance came up and jokingly asked BethAnn, "So, what did you do to make you a cripple?"

Really, she said that.  

Of course, this lady thought BethAnn had been in an accident, had maybe broken her leg, and that her condition was temporary.

And BethAnn gave me that look, and politely answered, "I was born prematurely, and this is how I walk."

And now, we keep laughing about the cripple comment.  

But there's a bigger truth here.

You see, someone could look at my life and legitimately ask me, "What's wrong with you?" 

Or I can ask myself, "What's wrong with me?  Why am I like this?"

And the answer is, "I was born crippled, sinful, from my mother's womb." 

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Psalm 51:5

And that's each one of us.  We're all born sinful and lame.

We literally stumble around, in broken bodies, unable to "walk" correctly in this life. 

And because we're ashamed and uncomfortable with our sin, we try to hide it or pretend it isn't there.  We don't like to talk about our crippleness; it doesn't seem appropriate to mention.

But the Bible abounds with verses about the lame person.

And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them.  Matthew 15:30

That's why Jesus came - to heal the lame, to deal with our sinfulness, so that we no longer walk crooked, but walk in straight paths.

...and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.            Hebrews 12:13

For now, today and in this life, God's Word and Spirit help us and strengthen us to walk straighter and better, as we live as both a sinner and a saint. 

Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.  Psalm 119:105

But we're looking for that day, when we're no longer crippled, either in spirit or in body.  We're looking for the day when we're free from the bonds of our sinful flesh, free from sickness, disease, lameness, and sin, and our bodies are made new.

...in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.  For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.  1 Corinthians 15:52–53

Until that day, just call me cripple.