Sweet Sisters,
How important is it to touch and be touched? Are some wired to need to be touched more than others? I’m talking about a simple, gentle, non-sexual touch that implies care and concern.
I asked Google how important is it to touch and be touched. Here is a comment that came up:
Studies show that touch signals safety and trust. It soothes. Basic warm touch calms cardiovascular stress. It activates the bodies’ vagus nerves which is intimately involved with our compassionate response. A simple touch can trigger release of oxytocin, “the love hormone”.
I know that oxytocin is a hormone involved with delivering a baby and breast feeding, but what did it have to do with touching? Again, I asked Google. I learned that Oxytocin is linked to warm, fuzzy feelings. It is shown in some research studies to regulate our emotional responses and pro-social behaviors including trust, empathy, gazing (an individuals awareness of and perception of other individuals), positive memories, processing of bonding cues and positive communication.
Google also informed me that research has shown that it takes 8 – 10 meaningful touches a day to maintain physical and emotional health.
As I think about this information it makes me wonder how the last year has affected us in this area of our lives. We have been warned to stay six feet away from everyone and especially make sure we don’t touch anyone.
I had an experience a few days ago that poignantly demonstrated the consequences of what may subtly be happening in our world.
I was running errands with a young adult friend. We came across an older woman who seemed to be stranded between the front of her car and the curb in front of it. She was hanging on to the Handicap pole next to the curb.
I asked her if she needed help and then turned to my friend and said, “My friend will help you get to the door of the store, won’t you?”
About that time her husband appeared and took over. After we got in the store my young friend turned to me and angrily said, “Why would you ask me to touch someone I don’t know? I don’t touch people!!!”
I said, “You would not help someone who needed it if it meant touching them?”
The answer was, “No!”
I said, “But what about kindness and compassion?”
The answer was, “I don’t have to touch people and you have no right to shame me because I don’t want to.”
Wow…. No wonder our world is in such a mess.
I agreed to respect my friend’s choice and to ask them first before offering their assistance to someone in need in the future.
The more I pondered this experience, the more I wondered how Jesus would respond in similar situations, when the world around Him said, “You can not touch that person.
Mark 1:40-42 (KJV) tells us a beautiful story about such a time:
40 And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.
41 And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean.
42 And as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed.
In the time of Jesus there was no one more untouchable than someone with leprosy. The man was taking a huge risk when he approached Jesus asking for help. Jesus could have just spoken the words, “You are healed” which He sometimes did, but in this situation He chose to reach out and touch the man.
By the way, some of your versions may say that Jesus was indignant or angry, which is also a legitimate translation. I think if Jesus was angry, it was not with this man but with Satan who had caused such suffering in this man’s life.
Why do you think Jesus responded the way he did?
I think it was because not only was the man’s body ravaged by leprosy, but his soul was ravaged by rejection and shame. Remember at the beginning we talked about how touching signals trust and safety? When Jesus reached out and touched this man, I think He was also saying, “You are important. You are loved. You are worth being touched.”
In Mark 5:37-43 we read the story of Jesus healing Jairus’ daughter. Notice verse 41:
41 He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”).
Jesus took her by the hand. The little girl was dead, which made her unclean and untouchable. Jesus touched her anyway.
Matthew 9:27 – 31 adds one more incident that appears to have followed the two I’ve just read:
27 As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”
28 When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”
“Yes, Lord,” they replied.
29 Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith let it be done to you”; 30 and their sight was restored. Jesus warned them sternly, “See that no one knows about this.” 31 But they went out and spread the news about him all over that region.
Again we see Jesus reaching out and touching two blind men who had come to Him asking to be healed.
I want to add a story from John 4. I am going to “go out on a limb” and make a comment here that I get from reading “between” the lines.
In John 4 we have the interaction of Jesus with the woman at the well. In verse 7 Jesus says to her, “Will you give me a drink?”
Question: What was she going to give Him a drink out of? My understanding is that when people drank from a well in those days hey used their own drinking utensil. It appears that Jesus did not have one. Was He asking an unclean Samaritan woman to share hers with Him?
It appears that Jesus also thought it was important to touch children. Matthew 19:13-14, Mark 10:13-16 and Luke 18:15-17 all record people bringing their children to Jesus to be touched and blessed by him.
Sweet Sisters;
We are living in a time of intense spiritual warfare. Satan is waging battle with as many weapons as he can think of. The more he can cause us to fear and distrust each other, the stronger his forces become and the weaker we become. Now, more than ever, we need to “reach out and touch someone”, especially those we may not know.
John 14:15 – 21:
15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
Jesus promises that if we love Him and keep his commandments that He will ask the Father to send a Helper who will be with us forever. He also says that He will be in us. Because I am filled with Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit, I do not have to be afraid to be Jesus’ hands and feet in a world that so desperately needs Him. This may mean a gentle touch, a kind word, an encouraging look, a good deed. Listen for HIs voice and He will guide you.
9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9
We are being called to rise up and join the spiritual battle that is raging in our world around us.
Rise up, Sweet Sisters, for you are God’s Princess Warriors!!
Debbie