Lao Traditional Massage

It would be a shame to travel all the way across the world to spend a month in Laos without experiencing a traditional Lao massage. And what better opportunity to indulge than during our weekend visit to Four Thousand Islands? So into the massage house ventured, my expectations as blank as the plain white bed on which my masseuse directed me to recline. He provided me with a cloth tunic reminiscent of Biblical times, I stretched out flat on my stomach, and away he went. He pressed my back into the mattress until the oxygen in my lungs was expunged. He dug his fingers into my neck like talons, clawing away the tension in my muscles. He bent my legs across my body, curled my torso into a pretzel, and stretched my entire body like a bridge in the air--contortions of which I was not aware I was capable! Although the duration of the experience lasted a mere half hour (and the soreness a couple of days!), I floated out of the massage house intoxicated by my relaxed state of being.

Later in the week, while reading Acts 28:27, I was reminded of the spiritual implications of the experience. "For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them." Like the Lao traditional massage, spiritual healing is a holistic experience. It requires eyes, ears, heart just as a physical massage requires back, neck, arms, legs, and even feet. According to the Lao belief, the foot is the most important part of the massage as the foot is the "heart" of the body. Various parts of the foot are connected with various muscles and determine the ultimate health if the whole. Likewise, the soul is the seat of our spiritual health; if we have submitted ourselves--heart, mind, and strength--to Christ the our conversion is complete. He is our healer. He restores us to a right relationship with our Creator, and massages the "kinks" in our spiritual souls.