Reaching Out

She had heard the reports

about Jesus and came up

behind him in the crowd
and touched his garment.

For she said, "If I touch even

his garments, I will be made well.

Mark 5:27-28

She was well known in the community. After all her disease was one of those that attracted attention because it isolated her, from everyone. Living wasn’t the challenge, simply existing was the insurmountable hurdle. No one would touch her. No one would intercede for her. Her youth was gone and the medical bills had emptied her accounts. The situation was beyond hopeless, but then she heard that the Healer was in town.

Names don’t seem to have any significance in this story. But maybe the name of this woman should be, HOPE! Her pro-active life seems to define the meaning of the word. The losses in her life were extensive with her health being the first domino. And yet having lost everything, one thing remains, hope, and it gets her out of bed, onto her feet, into her clothes, out the door and down the street. This outcast from the community must have heard the gasps and felt the shudders of the people she passed. But her hope was in the Healer that was in town and so she stumbles on and pushes her way through the impenetrable crowd. Each step turning hope into confident belief that this Healer, unlike all the others, was different. The word swirling around was that true healing power was what flowed out of this Healer. She knew that all she had to do was reach out and touch.

Yes, hope–it’s what kept her walking to the point where she stretched out her hand and touched. HOPE wasn’t disappointed–everything she had heard was true.

Jesus, forgive me when I am tempted
by self-pity and wound gazing.
Help me, today, to claim hope
as my motivation to keep reaching out and
touching You. I will not be disappointed.
AMEN.