Another Kind of Raising Up

Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, "Woman, you are set free from your ailment." When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, "There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day." But the Lord answered him and said, "You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?" When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing. - Luke 13:10-17

stooped so only the beetles could see her face

stuck in fractured vertebrae downward posture

bone on bone and the cracking of movement

crooked humility like forced back labor

and then the raising the release the renewal

freedom to stand up and breathe deep in the lungs

strengthened in spine and spirit and looking everyone eye to eye

another one lifted up to dignity and now:

a free, 

gracious, 

thankful 

bow