W E NEED HUMAN TOUCH. It might be a warm handshake or a sympathetic hug to a congratulatory pat on the back. Touch can ease pain and lift depression. Babies who are not held and nuzzled and hugged enough will literally stop growing and — if the situation lasts long enough, even if they are receiving proper nutrition — die.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/…/b…/201003/touching-empathy
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WE NEED JESUS’ TOUCH. The Gospels use the words “hands,” “fingers” and “touch” nearly two hundred times, and the words often refer to Jesus: “Jesus put out His hand and touched him …. He went in and took her by the hand …. He touched their eye …. Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand …. Jesus came and touched them …. Then little children were brought to Him that He might put His hands on them and pray ….”
There are several aspects of His touch:
● His touch is loving — Never does Jesus touch someone in anger. Never does he strike out in hate. Never does Jesus use touch in negative, hurtful ways. Jesus’ touch is love. Loving sinners. Loving the sick. Loving the self-righteous. Loving the poor. Loving the rich.
● His touch is powerful — He touches Simon and he becomes Peter. His touch changes James into an early martyr and John into the Apostle of love, respectively. His touch is a powerful touch. As we sang earlier. “He touched my and made me whole.”
● His touch is transforming — Now we know that Jesus does not reach out his hand and touch us like he did to the little girl. But that doesn’t mean we are no longer “touched” by him. We use that word to indicate strong feelings of sympathy, appreciation, or gratitude. “Your card was very touching.” “It was touching the way the boy picked up the ladies dropped purse.” Jesus still comes to us and touches us. When He does, everything changes. His touch gives life.
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WE NEED TO TOUCH OTHERS. Jesus wasn’t afraid to touch others. Leprous skin didn’t repulse Him, nor did He hesitate to handle the filthy feet of His disciples in the Upper Room. Now He wants to use our hands to send the same message of love, humility, and acceptance. Jesus’ hands were kind, doing good. Jesus’ hands healed, blessed, washed tired feet, caught people when they fell.
Hear me clearly: Not all touch is appropriate. Children need touch but not in ways that are not safe, not in ways that are wrong — touching in places that are private. Adults, hear that as well. There’s a well-publicized trail going on now over whether a radio disc jockey inappropriately touched singer Taylor Swift. Any unwelcomed touch is wrong. We need touch. Positive touch. Safe touch. Life-giving touch.
Some of us take human contact for granted. In fact, some people — parents of young children say — may at times yearn to be left alone, with no one touching or tugging at them for say, a whole afternoon, or even an hour. But there are others who live alone and rarely leave home. They may go a whole day or even week without human touch. Those in medical facilities may only get the touch of poking and prodding by busy health-care professionals. Then are folks behind bars. Locked away from loving and caring human touch.
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LET OUR HANDS WORK for Jesus. May they be strong and gentle and kind in all we do.
Perhaps we can wipe the brow of sick friend. Cook a meal for a lonely single person. Type a note to someone needing encouragement. Cut flowers for a neighbor. Wipe the noses of infants in the church nursery.
Your hands can do His work every day.
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SUE MONK KIDD was a young nurse, inexperienced in suffering. One afternoon she witnessed the doctor’s grim face as he entered the room of one of her patients.
He said, “I’m sorry, Mr. Smith, you have cancer and we should operate right away.”
When the doctor left, Mr. Smith stared at the window in silence. Sue noticed he was trembling. She wanted to comfort him, but didn’t know what to say. Instinctively she placed her hand on his shoulder.
With glistening eyes, the man looked up at her, placed one hand on hers, and whispered, “thank you.”
And Sue thought, “For what?”
Could such a small gesture as touch communicate so much? Indeed it can.
— Sue Monk Kidd, Firstlight (New York: Guideposts Books, 2006), p. 78
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“TOUCH IN CHURCH”
— Ann Weems in Reaching for Rainbows (1980, Westminster Press):
What is all this touching in church?
It used to be a person could come to church and sit in the pew
and not be bothered by all this friendliness
and certainly not by touching.
I used to come to church and leave untouched.
Now I have to be nervous about what’s expected of me.
I have to worry about responding to the person sitting next to me.
Oh, I wish it could be the way it used to be;
I could just ask the person next to me: How are you?
And the person could answer: Oh, just fine,
And we’d both go home … strangers who have known each other
for twenty years.
But now the minister asks us to look at each other.
I’m worried about that hurt look I saw in that woman’s eyes.
Now I’m concerned,
because when the minister asks us to pass the peace,
The man next to me held my hand so tightly
I wondered if he had been touched in years.
Now I’m upset because the lady next to me cried and then apologized
And said it was because I was so kind and that she needed
A friend right now.
Now I have to get involved.
Now I have to suffer when this community suffers.
Now I have to be more than a person coming to observe a service.
That man last week told me I’d never know how much I’d touched his life.
All I did was smile and tell him I understood what it was to be lonely.
Lord, I’m not big enough to touch and be touched!
The stretching scares me.
What if I disappoint somebody?
What if I’m too pushy?
What if I cling too much?
What if somebody ignores me?
“Pass the peace.”
“The peace of God be with you.” “And with you.”
And mean it.
Lord, I can’t resist meaning it!
I’m touched by it, I’m enveloped by it!
I find I do care about that person next to me!
I find I am involved!
And I’m scared.
O Lord, be here beside me.
You touch me, Lord, so that I can touch and be touched!
So that I can care and be cared for!
So that I can share my life with all those others that belong to you!
All this touching in church — Lord, it’s changing me!
