Manariwa

A teacher once told his students a parable.

“One day, a rain of strange, wicked dust fell on a town and covered it in darkness and chaos. Many people got sick and those who survived remained indoors for fear of getting infected. Now, the marriage of the sole heir of the richest family in town to the daughter of another wealthy family in another town was postponed until the calamity would pass.

“The town physicians worked to make a potion which the town officials required the people to take to end the crisis. It took many weeks to prepare and administer the cure to the townsfolk. But many did not accept the physicians’ advice and decided instead to use traditional means to protect and heal themselves of the sickness, which were effective.

“When the crisis showed signs of abating, the family decided to push through with the wedding and set a date for the grand event. However, five of the ten bridesmaids of the wedding ceremony missed the wedding since their appointment with the doctors fell on the day of the wedding. The other five, who used natural means against the malady, went to the wedding.”

A student asked, “Is there another new meaning to this parable, sir?”

The teacher replied, “Right, the marriage is the union of the Lord and His Bride in the last day. And as God listened to Abraham, who bargained with God to spare as many people in Sodom and Gomorrah as He could, and to Joshua who prayed for more time to defeat the Amalekites, He also grants us more time to repent and be healed of our sins. Otherwise, if He comes today – and nobody can prevent it if He wills it, so many would lose the chance to find life. Each new day is not just another day to enjoy but for more people to realize time will eventually run out for everyone and everything at the same time.”

“And what does the dust stand for?” added the student.

“It refers to the trials and temptations of life, as well as to the teachings and knowledge humans have spread throughout the world and which cause people to depart from God’s ways.”

Another student asked, “But there were two ways to cure the disease, sir. Are not doctors trained and qualified to address the health crisis?”

“Again, like Moses the great prophet, the only protection against the plagues was what he received from God and told the Israelites. The Egyptians and all their sorcerers only provided fake, ineffective solutions.”

The student again asked, “So, why are there doctors at all? And if the traditional means were effective, why do many not practice or promote them?”

“The children of this world are wise in the ways and knowledge of this world while the children of light know that the real source of life and wholeness is God. All that knowledge had already been given and taught but got lost and erased by people who do not follow God’s ways,” the teacher said.

“But isn’t the knowledge of humans based on careful study of Nature and is therefore a valuable tool for solving many of our problems, as we can see in the progress of civilization?” a student asked.

“Right and wrong. We now live in convenience but not entirely in step with the ancient way of life that allowed people to live to a thousand – and even much longer, if they had only remained perfect in obedience,” replied the teacher.

“But, sir, isn’t that like living in a make-believe world? It is impossible to go back now and relearn how to become like those ancient people. We can’t live in the past,” one student retorted.

“What you believe makes your world. And if the Maker made this world a certain way, He also has the right to show us to use it by His pattern. If what the writer wrote is true, then all things He made were “good” in the beginning. Modern thinkers tinker with them and find out how they work and how to improve life. They still miss the point that following His plan, not ours, is the only way. You cannot make something better out of what was already good and meant to work as it was intended,” said the teacher.   

“But sir, isn’t it quite difficult to live in a modern place where modern ways are practiced and even enforced if you follow those outmoded ways of living and thinking?” a student asked with a confused look.

The teacher stood up and pointed to the sky as he answered, “When Solomon looked at the sky and saw the clouds, he knew it was the same water that fell as rain and the same water that flowed in rivers toward the sea which then returned to the sky. What he understood a long time ago is what is now called by our experts as the Water Cycle. Nothing has changed for there is nothing new in this world. What they teach you and what they say is better cannot be something new or better than what has already been created.”

A student asked, “But we all get sick, sir. And during a health crisis, we need immediate protection to remain healthy. Do we not have the freedom to choose how to protect ourselves?”

“We do, dear students. You can ask the same thing from our leaders. But rulers impose what their learned and trusted ministers tell them to do. If I were the ruler, you would listen to the ways of God I pass on to you. However, sin is the greatest sickness. When the Lord healed the spirit, He also healed the body. When He healed a sick person, He meant to show He could heal the spirit as well. Yet in our society where hospitals and churches work side-by-side, people tend to see the spirit as entirely separate from the body. Doctors and preachers pay due respect to one another, and they may equally acknowledge God in their allocated concerns. But as each undertaking grows in size and number, the separation grows, telling us that more people are getting sicker in body and spirit. If either of them were so effective, you would see more people never coming back and more people living healthy bodies and spirits and serving God freely and in harmony.

“There is but one body and one spirit, united and living as one. God has become a mere convenient partner and justification for our many separated human structures. Those who truly want to remain strong in body and spirit cannot achieve that by working stressfully for days and then lying exhausted or sick in beds or sitting comfortably in pews, waiting for some healing to renew them for the same thing over and over again. Putting up more and bigger buildings to house the sick in body or spirit will never be the real sign of a whole society. Why? Because we already have homes and neighborhoods where we are meant to live our lives fully and communally at all times, as the early disciples did.

The truly whole people go out into the world and set the world ablaze with God’s truth in order to overturn its wasteful and even ungodly systems. And God wants nothing more than to equip and enable us to heal a rapidly dying world. Until we realize the purified and prepared Body or Bride of the Christ longs to be one with Him, we will not strive to unite the body and the spirit in order to totally heal and integrate society the way God meant for us to achieve as the showcase for His Kingdom.

“In all things, we can always choose whom to follow, someone else or God. Besides, it is not what enters into your body that makes you sick; it is the condition of your body that allows whatever enters to cause you to experience dis-ease or not. You are either immune because God made you so and you keep it so or you are not.”

“This is hard to swallow for me, sir. Are you saying we do not need doctors and their medicine?” the student followed up.

“Doctors do not make us well, as I already said. You are either already well or you are unwell because your condition is unwell – that is, you live, eat, work and think in a way that makes you unwell. When trials and diseases come, your body simply gives way. It is the same way with medicine; it is not what you take in that makes you well and protected from disease. It is also the condition of your body that will protect you from dis-ease. In short, what attacks is useless against a healthy body and mind. And whatever you take in to attack the attacker can only aggravate further your unsound condition or disrupt your sound condition,” the teacher answered.

“So, exactly how do we acquire this sound condition, sir?” asked the student again.

“I already told you that you are children of light. If you fix your eyes on the light, the light in your life will be well. You can then savor the goodness and wellness that God created in all things He made — the land, the air, the water, the food and the love that all go together to refresh this world into that condition of being “good” that it was in the beginning in His eyes. But people often see the world and people with evil eyes because darkness dwells in their hearts. And so, they cannot see and believe the ways of God. Beware of such serpents – they can hide in plain sight! How? By slowly removing the light in you until your own eyes become darkened and blinded from the truth.

“Remember, the ancient ways worked because they were given during the time when the world itself was whole or uncorrupted. And Noah’s story already shows us how corrupted the Earth can become. God healed the world and kept Noah and his family safe and whole in mind, body and spirit. Noah even wrote a book listing all the herbs humans needed to remain healthy and to cure illnesses. But even that has been taken away or hidden from us. Fortunately, that knowledge is coming back and more people are picking it up. Nevertheless, beware of those who would seek to maintain their power over your body and your spirit by enforcing their wicked ways. As much as we should be greatly thankful for Noah, we should also be wary of those who seek to undo all his great labor for God’s children by replacing His wisdom with human knowledge. 

“I now leave you to answer this question: Is our world today better than the world of Noah? Or is it more corrupt? In short, will there be more people today who will miss the wedding of the Lamb than those who will not? Your answer will shake what you believe and how you want to make your world.”

The teacher thanked his students and left them thinking harder than ever.

(Original photo of stylized photo above courtesy of The Bride Candy.)