The other day while visiting someone in a nursing home I stepped out of the elevator and into a room where frail men and women were slumped in wheel chairs in a posture that made my neck hurt looking at them.  Their chins were on their chests or their heads were leaning limply on one shoulder. Some were drooling. All the chairs were lined up in front of a television showing a soap opera and the sound was much too loud for anyone, even those hard of hearing. It was a miserable sight. But then something unexpected happened.

A young girl, maybe 7 or 8 years old, stepped away from her mother who was visiting someone else. With her mother's encouragement this little girl placed her hand upon the hand of man slumped in a wheelchair, numb, the living dead. She looked at him and smiled as she said her name. "What's your name?" she asked. And, I believe I witnessed a healing taking place in the living room of that nursing home. The man tilted his head up slightly and looked at her. His face broke into a smile and he said his name. Then the little girl went from person to person in each wheelchair offering the same healing touch and the same welcoming benediction. No one tossed a wheelchair out the window and no one danced a jig, but I believe we all experienced, for a moment, the restoration of the community of life where everyone has a place. This is the social healing that Jesus brings through people like this little girl.