Ten Lepers and Two Cookies

When Janice and I lived in Alabama, our then six-year-old grandson (Bryant) lived a few states away, but I talked with him and his two brothers every Sunday night. Our conversations revolved around their sports activities, bad jokes (“Why couldn’t the pirate recite the alphabet? He kept getting lost at sea”), food, and what they learned in Bible class that morning. We went other places according to the moment, but these were the well-worn trails in our talks. 

On one occasion when I asked Bryant what they had talked about in Bible class, his reply was immediate and to the point, “Ten lepers and two cookies.”  That dialed me in, so I asked for details. 

He told me about Jesus’ healing of the ten lepers and how only a Samaritan had returned to say, “Thank you.” Then the budding young foodie said with some force, “And after the lesson the teacher gave us all a cookie.” I seem to remember at this point a slight digression as we discussed the quality of the cookie (it was good). Then he told me they had all thanked their teacher for the cookie—to which she exclaimed, “I have never had everyone in the class say, “Thank you” before!” She accordingly celebrated this momentous occasion with . . . another cookie!

That cinched it. 

When Jesus lamented how “the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of light,”—He wasn’t talking about Bryant’s teacher. She knew exactly what she was doing and did it well. She planned the work and worked the plan. She taught the lesson. She gave them an opportunity to make direct application in their lives by saying “Thank you.” Then she reinforced it with a second cookie. Now  every time Bryant hears about the ten lepers, he will think about the two cookies and remember the importance of being grateful and saying, “Thank you.”

No matter how it happens, this is a truth that needs to be written in our hearts.

-Bruce Green