HERO | A Children's Book Connecting Jesus' Ministry To ElishaSample

From across the room my Saba sees me deep in thought and calls me over to sit on his lap. “What’s the matter, my boy?” 

“Saba, can you tell me more about Elisha … just tell me the best story about him.” 
 
Saba, with a huge smile on his face, sits back and strokes his chin and says, “That’s an easy one, my boy. My favorite Elisha story is when he heals Namaan, the leprous king. Namaan was a rich man, a proud man, but he was also a sick man. Though he was a king and had many riches, nothing could make him happy because he had a horrible disease called leprosy. This disease made parts of Namaan’s body fall off, and every time he got hurt, hit, cut, scraped or bruised, he would never heal. Namaan was always in pain, and he had no one to help him. When people came near him, he had to yell ‘Unclean!’ so people did not accidentally touch him and get sick themselves.

“Namaan one day went to Elisha, and Elisha promised to heal him. He told Namaan to bathe in a river with a terrible smell. Namaan did not like the idea of bathing in a stinky river because he was proud and thought he needed to do something special to be healed. Eventually, though, he jumped in, and his disease was healed—not to mention that his proud heart was healed as well.”

 That night, lying awake in bed, I cannot stop thinking about Namaan’s story. The whole next week, I wake up every morning thinking about it and about the life of Elisha. As if this is not enough, throughout the week everyone keeps talking about the nobleman’s son and how he has been healed. In fact, Jesus healed many other people from what I heard, including a blind man at the pool of Bethsaida in Jerusalem.   
 
I mean … I know that man! 

Whenever we are in Jerusalem he is always lying around this certain pool that people believe has a special healing power. No one wants to touch him. He is loud, mean, and all torn up from lying on the ground all the time. That man in Bethsaida is so much like Namaan.