You probably already know Barabas, but you might not know why Barabas always looks so angry.  He has a complicated life for such a young boy.  He is only in the second grade.  Actually, he repeated second grade because he didn’t do so good the first time he went through second grade.

Barabas has always wished he had a mother and father like everyone else does.  But Barabas’s mother died and his father is in jail.  Every time Barabas looks into a mirror and sees the scar on his face, it reminds him that he was in the car accident.  He was just a baby, so he doesn’t remember any of it.  But he knows his daddy was driving a car without a license and that his daddy was very drunk and very angry and he should NOT have been driving a car.

And so it is, that Barabas lives with Uncle Floyd, who by the way, is the greatest Uncle anyone could ask for in the whole wide world.  Uncle Floyd loves Barabas very much! 

And yet, Barabas still feels unlovable.  He feels too big for second grade.  He has a stupid vase instead of legs like his friends.  Sometimes, Barabas has even dreamed he was a giraffe, like Elizabeth and Sam.

These are the reasons why Barabas always looks so angry.

But last week something different began to happen to Barabas.  LAST summer he broke his vase when he was learning to skateboard and he had to have a new vase installed.  And then TWO WEEKS AGO, something went very wrong with that vase and he needed another operation.  That is a lot of surgery for a little boy.

But THIS time, after THIS operation, Barabas began to feel much better much sooner.  He began to trust the love shown by Uncle Floyd and Pastor Ed and Mrs. Potato Head and his friends and Nurse Fran and even the anonymous donor who paid for his operation, whoever that is.

Barabas Heffelfinger, in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, may you be strengthened and filled with God’s grace, that you may know the healing power of the Spirit.”  And then Pastor Ed put oil on Barabas’s forehead in the sign of the cross.

And Barabas feels different.  He feels . . . . . loved.  Now, he still looks too big for second grade and he is still not a giraffe like his friends and he still lives with Uncle Floyd instead of a mommy and daddy, but there was something sad and angry that finally seemed to go away on the inside of Barabas.  Finally!

I think that God has healed Barabas in his body and his mind and his spirit.

I hope that if there are sick people here today, or sad or angry people, that God will also heal them in their body and their mind and their spirit.     

THE END

Printer friendly copy of this story