With his stripes we are...
Illustration
"With his stripes we are healed ..." A number of years ago, the Rockefeller Foundation reported on an event of much importance to the world. At the center of this story stands Asibi, a West African. It was in the time when yellow fever was running rampant everywhere. Asibi became ill, suffering from this dreaded disease. After a long and difficult struggle, he recovered, as few ever did. But some of Asibi's blood was taken and put by scientists through a process, becoming the source of the yellow fever vaccine that since 1937 has been used around the world.
Thus, the original strain of virus obtained from this humble African has since gone from laboratory to laboratory providing immunity to millions of people in many lands. The Foundation report closed with these words: "Through the creative imagination of science, the blood of one man in West Africa has been made to serve the whole human race."
We know a parallel to that, don't we? This: Through the grace of God, the shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ has been made to serve the whole human race. For, you see, we know Another who also gave his blood -- nearly 2,000 years ago. And that gift also, in a different way, was a gift of wholeness.
-- Mann
Thus, the original strain of virus obtained from this humble African has since gone from laboratory to laboratory providing immunity to millions of people in many lands. The Foundation report closed with these words: "Through the creative imagination of science, the blood of one man in West Africa has been made to serve the whole human race."
We know a parallel to that, don't we? This: Through the grace of God, the shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ has been made to serve the whole human race. For, you see, we know Another who also gave his blood -- nearly 2,000 years ago. And that gift also, in a different way, was a gift of wholeness.
-- Mann
