The Touch

Do you believe that there is power in the human touch..? When we as children, were ever faced with something that felt far beyond our years.. we’d on impulse run to our mother or father. We’d hold on to them. Remember how, with their touch, every fear of ours would fade..?

With the years passing though, the magic of that touch may weaken. When we stand as adults.. if we can’t deal with that which we face, who else can for us..? But even then, life finds a way to give us a chance to feel the power of that touch.

When you’re faced with the pain of the loss of a beloved.. when words can scarcely provide comfort, the warmth of that simple touch is sometimes all that can keep you breathing. When we feel that before us stands an insurmountable mountain, even if the hand that holds us can do little to lead us through, a touch can let us know.. there is someone here to hold on to, should we fail.

The touch can mean compassion. The touch can mean forgiveness. The touch can mean acceptance. The touch can mean sympathy. Even empathy. The touch can mean so much when it comes from someone filled with love within.

Whether there is a power or not in the human touch, life has lead me through days that has made me understand the value of this means of connection to another soul. The touch that lets you feel the existence of love. Because sometimes, there is no other way left to feel love. And it is with this understanding that I read this verse from the Book of Isaiah:

For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, “Fear not, I am the one who helps you.”

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭41:13‬

In a moment of loneliness and faced with fear, when perhaps nothing else could’ve reached my troubled soul, His Word reached me through this verse to comfort me. Reminding me of all those who have held me.. the touches that kept me sane through the miseries of life. Reminding me that there is a touch filled with more comfort than any other.

But more than the comfort, there is this sense of amazement, that when God purposed the revelation of His nature through His Word, He made it a point to let us know how near His love extends toward us. That the Lord of all creation, seeing that we need His love expressed in a way we could grasp even when all seems lost, stretches out His hand to take hold of us. To touch us…

This is but one meaning that we can ascribe to the touch of God. When the Son of God walked among us in the flesh, He touched people with a greater purpose. Think of the leper He touched, for instance. Another man condemned by sin. Separated from contact with his people, and even from the presence of his God in His temple.

But Jesus touched him. The touch healed him. What that touch also would’ve done was fill those in presence with hope that despite the Law that condemns, the heart of God does not delight in separation from sinful man, but His desire is in bringing the sinner into union with Him in holiness, through the healing in Him. The hope He would go on to fulfil on the cross.

The touch can mean so much when it comes from someone filled with love within. The touch can mean even more, when it comes from the God who is love…