Once, a leper approached Jesus, knelt before Him, and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”

A leper in those times was a completely rejected person. People were horrified at the sight of them, and their only fate was confinement, darkness, and shame.

His issue was physical, but it also involved the soul. These are the two sources that can make us feel ashamed. Sometimes it’s an illness, sometimes it’s something serious we’ve done, sometimes it’s a failure that leads us to withdraw from others.

This man chose to do the only thing he could: he humbled himself before Jesus and asked to be cleansed. And God is never indifferent to a contrite and humbled heart.

Then, Jesus had mercy on him, identified with his pain, reached out His hand, and touched him, to restore the value and dignity he had lost.

Finally, this man was healed; his shame was left behind, he stopped walking in the shadows, and he became a sociable man once again.

Where are you in this story? Maybe at the beginning, carrying a shame for things you can no longer change; or you are in the middle, about to take the big step of bringing all your guilt, all your pain, all that has caused you shame, to the feet of the Savior.