“Now the Arameans had captured in a raid on the land of Israel a little girl, who became the servant of Naaman’s wife.
“If only my master would present himself to the prophet in Samaria,” she said to her mistress, “he would cure him of his leprosy”.
Naaman went and told his lord just what the slave girl from the land of Israel had said.”
2 Kgs 5:3-4
Do you let your pain limit your love?
The ancient world was sometimes a brutal place. Tribes and families would fight one another and often it was the weak and the vulnerable who suffered most. The passage today centers on a young girl who was collateral damage in one such conflict. As a young girl, she had been captured in a raid and bound in slavery to another group. It would have been natural for her to harbor hatred for the people who took her from her family and tore away her freedom. However, we see something remarkable in these verses. Instead of hatred, we see compassion.
The husband of the girl’s master is sick with leprosy and has nowhere to turn. Instead of savoring the suffering of her captor, the young girl offers some advice on where to turn for help.
We don’t even know this girl’s name yet she offers an example of selfless care that I find inspiring. She believed in a God that was big enough not only to help those different from her but even those who had harmed her. The pain she had suffered was to match for the God that she knew.
May we have the courage to place our pain in the hands of God and the willingness to open our hearts to expand into realms of greater love.
Question of the day
What is one pain from your life you can offer to God today?
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