The phrase, “Reach Out and Touch,” reminds me of the story in the Bible of a woman with an issue of blood in Luke 8:43-48. After fruitless visits to countless doctors, unable to find a cure for her condition, she desperately reached out and touched the hem of the Messiah’s gown as He passed by. When she took this simple “last-ditch” action, she received the healing she had not found in twelve years of frantic searching. The Bible tells us that she had spent all her money trying to find a cure for an illness causing her to be an outcast—even in her own family. However, in a moment when she reached out and touched the hem of Jesus’ garment, her faith in Him healed what no doctor could.
We, like this nameless woman, often struggle to find answers to our problems, our circumstances, our illness but fail. We run to doctors, psychologists, mediums, friends, counselors and continue to come up hopelessly empty. We read self-help books and believe we have the answer to those issues plaguing our lives, but we are only fooling ourselves. Hoping to find the answer, we fall into relationships, party, spend money, take drugs, drink alcohol, indulge in hobbies, and buy things we don’t need or want. However, nothing we find heals the pain, the illness, the failure, the sadness, the brokenness—but we continue to seek.
The tragic thing is that many have heard that out answer is in Jesus yet refuse to believe that anything that simple could be the solution they are seeking. Years are and lives are wasted in our refusal to reach out and touch the hem of the Savior.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV)
To receive rest and healing, all we need to do is to come to Jesus and accept his love and forgiveness in exchange for the burdens we carry.
~Juanita Adamson September 2023
