✨Uzziel son of Harhaiah, one of the goldsmiths, repaired the next section; and Hananiah, one of the perfume-makers, made repairs next to that. They restored Jerusalem as far as the Broad Wall.
Nehemiah 3:4✨
Thought from the verse:
A goldsmith has to do very fine work. His hands will get hurt during building work. But he does not think about it when he works for God.
A worker in the salt pans:
I watched an incident on TV where a fisherman comes to work in the salt pans. The salt pan owner tells them, “Eyesight and strong hands are very important for a fisherman. The strong sunlight in the salt pans will affect your eyes. The salt crystals will cut through your palms”. But the fisherman replied: “I need to collect money for an important cause. So please don’t stop me!”. I was reminded of this when I read this verse.
St. Damien is known as the leper for Christ. In 1866, to curb the spread of the disease, Hawaiian authorities decided to consign lepers to an isolated community on the island of Molokai. St. Damien went to Molokai to help the neglected people of the island. What surprised the lepers most was that Damien touched them. Other missionaries and doctors shrank from the lepers. In fact, one local doctor only changed bandages with his cane. But Damien not only touched the lepers, he also embraced them, he dined with them, he put his thumb on their forehead to anoint them, and he placed the Eucharist on their tongues. All of these actions spoke volumes to the dejected lepers. They showed that Damien didn’t want to serve them from afar; he wanted to become one of them.
Despite the idyllic community Damien had built through a decade of work, the moment he feared finally arrived in December 1884. One day, while soaking his feet in extremely hot water, Damien experienced no sensation of heat or pain—a tell-tale sign that he had contracted leprosy.
He wrote home to his brother: “I make myself a leper with the lepers to gain all to Jesus Christ”.
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