Cry Out to the Lord to Heal the People that Hurt Us

It is Tuesday, and I am trying to get back to a routine after a 4-day weekend, snow day last week, and school delays last week and again today, due to the snowy and cold weather. I was given so much to think about this weekend. My mind is still reeling.

On Saturday, there was a March For Life rally in Washington D.C., where hundreds of thousands of people showed up to support life and unborn children. God loves his children. We are “fearfully and wonderfully made” by God. Every life is cherished and valued by God.

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
— Psalm 139:13-14 (NIV)

On Sunday, we attended church and learned that it was the day to celebrate the Sanctity of Life, which values all life. The pastor read from Jeremiah 18-19. Then, a lady, who had an abortion 45 years ago spoke about how the choice affected her life. Society tells us abortion is a choice, but they don’t tell us how that choice will make us feel. That choice can break us down and affect our physical heath, mind and heart. She admitted that she came to church 11 years ago, feeling broken. After coming to church, she has realized that God has forgiven her, and she will be reunited with her baby in heaven one day. Why? God forgives us for our sins, when we seek him and ask him for forgiveness. God will blot out our sins and remembers them no more. God will mend us back together again, because he loves us. And, he doesn’t just forgive us, he gives us peace in our hearts and minds.

“I, even I, am he who blots out
your transgressions, for my own sake,
and remembers your sins no more.
–Isaiah 43:25 (NIV)

Yesterday, was the observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. day. I like to read and listen to his entire speech. My favorite part of his speech is:

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.
Source: King Institute, Stanford

I am the mother of mixed race children. My husband is Indian/Pakistani, and I am of European descent. My beautiful children never really thought about skin color, until they entered school and learned about Martin Luther King, Jr. I always feel happy and satisfied that part of King’s vision has been realized, “my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character”. After learning about our American history, they always come home from school and ask, “Mommy, what am I? What color is my skin?” My heart always aches a little knowing that a bit of their innocence has been taken away, and now they realize that there were and are people that judge you based on your skin color. I tell them the truth. They are the perfect combination of their dad and mom. They have beautiful skin in the perfect color, and that I wished my skin was the same color of theirs. God made them perfectly and beautiful. It doesn’t matter if they are dark or light, or how people label them, they are beautiful exactly as they are. I tell them that God created all people equally, and every human is made by God. When they ask if God would be mad at discrimination, I say yes and tell them about the story in the bible, Numbers:12.

In the bible, in Numbers:12, Moses had married a Cushite woman. A Cushite is from Ethiopia, so she was African and dark skinned. Mariam and Aaron started talking against Moses, because he married an African woman. God addressed the situation by calling Moses, Mariam and Aaron out of the tent. God told them he addresses his prophets in dreams, yet with Moses “I speak face to face”. God is mad at Mariam and Aaron for speaking against Moses and his wife. “Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” God was angry with them. “The anger of the Lord burned against them, and he left them.” When God’s cloud lifted, Miriam’s skin was leprous. Moses cried out to God to heal her. God did have mercy on her and told them to confine her outside the camp for 7 days, and then she was healed.

Miriam and Aaron Oppose Moses
Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite. “Has the Lord spoken only through Moses?” they asked. “Hasn’t he also spoken through us?” And the Lord heard this.

(Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.)

At once the Lord said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, “Come out to the tent of meeting, all three of you.” So the three of them went out. Then the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud; he stood at the entrance to the tent and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When the two of them stepped forward, he said, “Listen to my words:

“When there is a prophet among you,
I, the Lord, reveal myself to them in visions,
I speak to them in dreams.
But this is not true of my servant Moses;
he is faithful in all my house.
With him I speak face to face,
clearly and not in riddles;
he sees the form of the Lord.
Why then were you not afraid
to speak against my servant Moses?”
The anger of the Lord burned against them, and he left them.

When the cloud lifted from above the tent, Miriam’s skin was leprous[a]—it became as white as snow. Aaron turned toward her and saw that she had a defiling skin disease, and he said to Moses, “Please, my lord, I ask you not to hold against us the sin we have so foolishly committed. Do not let her be like a stillborn infant coming from its mother’s womb with its flesh half eaten away.”

So Moses cried out to the Lord, “Please, God, heal her!”

The Lord replied to Moses, “If her father had spit in her face, would she not have been in disgrace for seven days? Confine her outside the camp for seven days; after that she can be brought back.” So Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on till she was brought back.

After that, the people left Hazeroth and encamped in the Desert of Paran.
— Numbers 12 (NIV)

Moses married an African woman with dark skin. Moses’s brother, Aaron, and sister, Mariam, must have spoken some very unkind words about Moses’s wife. The words angered the Lord so much, that the Lord gave Mariam leprosy in her hand. Leprosy was once feared as a highly contagious and devastating disease. If left untreated, the nerve damage can result in crippling of hands and feet, paralysis, and blindness. The Lord had mercy on her, after Moses cried out to God to heal her. After 7 days, God healed her. Clearly, God loves all his children and racism ignites the Lord’s anger. Even though his brother and sister were not saying kind words about his wife, Moses still forgave them and cried out to God to heal them.

God created each of us and loves each of us. God loves his unborn children. God loves people from every place in the world. God created us all in his image and likeness. God values all life from the womb to death. God forgives us, when we ask God to forgive our sins. I think God wants us to be like Moses. When we experience racism, we should follow the example of Moses and cry out to the Lord to heal the people that hurt us.