A TOUCH

A touch can do many things.  It can get one's attention.  It can comfort one in sadness.  It can soothe fear.  

Considering the life of Jesus while on earth, I find many things that are sad to me.  The fact that he "had no where to lay his head" and the fact that there were many that seemed to really have a hatred for him makes my heart hurt.  On the other hand, I see in his life all the good that he did.  The Scriptures say that everywhere he went, people followed him.  

I wonder if I had lived during the time of Jesus how I would have felt.  Would I have been a believer of all the good he did or would I be a bit of a naysayer?  I see that to many Jesus might have been quite the celebrity.    

One thing that made a difference to many was the touch of Jesus.  I read of the woman who had the issue of blood who believed that if she could "just touch the hem of his garment", she would be made whole.  I read of the blind man who Jesus made to see and the crippled ones that he healed to walk again.  I thought of the touch of Jesus as the little children came to him.  I thought of his "touch" to the wind when he calmed the storm.  And oh to think of the joy of the mother whose child was dead, yet the touch of Jesus made the child to live again.  It's hard to imagine how strong and yet how gentle the touch of Jesus is.  

I would even consider a touch without a physical touch.  Have you ever been "touched" by someone's expression, simply on their face?  Or words they said that caused you to feel their love?  A touch can compass a big area of life.

One of my favorite scriptures tells of a supper in the house of Simon the leper.  It was at a gathering there that a woman (some gospels say Mary, some just say a woman) washed the feet of Jesus, dried them with her hair, and applied expensive perfume.  The four gospels differ in some ways but to me the story is not about who the woman was but the love she showed.  I figure whoever she was, she had to have felt the touch of Jesus at one point in her life.  One of the gospels say she did it in preparation for his burial.  Either way, what a great act of love.   

The Pharisees complained that the expensive perfume could have been sold to feed the poor but Jesus said that the act of this woman would be a memorial to her.  One of my daily prayers is that I would not be as a Pharisee and think myself something.  I pray for humbleness in my life.  I need it!  

The life of Jesus can be pretty confusing and amazing at the same time.  By faith I believe it all.

As you go through you day today, consider the touch of Jesus and what it means to you.