Her situation couldn’t have been more hopeless.
She’d tried it all—filled out endless forms; visited regular doctors, alternative doctors, traveling doctors, wanabe doctors, retired doctors. She’d read, researched, cried, and prayed. She’d taken every medical exam known to man.
And still, over a decade later, no answers. Just steady decline. She was growing worse.
There were simply no options left. No more reserves to draw from. She’d spent everything she had—as well as borrowing money from every compassionate soul she could think of.
Not that she cared about the money. She just longed for a touch. How long had it been now? Twelve years of isolation? Twelve years without so much as a hand resting on her shoulder. Her disease—this never-stopping flow of blood—made her “unclean.” If anyone touched her, they would be defiled.
I know women like her. Stuck. Hopeless. At, or nearing, the end of their rope. Women I can’t touch. Women I long to touch, but I just don’t know how.
Just when hope had run out, someone told her about this man like no other, this man called Jesus. Maybe it was a friend of a friend who relayed what Jesus had taught down by the lake one afternoon. Maybe someone in her family knew a neighbor miraculously healed by Him. No matter... someone had told her about Him.
And that was all it took. She heard with ears of faith. At least enough faith to do a crazy, daring, courageous thing—she elbowed her way to the front of that noisy, jostling crowd to get to Him. To touch Him. She knew she was out of line, but sometimes desperate women take desperate measures.
The instant she touched Him, she knew. She was whole. Healed.
His words confirmed it:
“Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease” (Mark 5:34).
She didn’t know it yet, but this Jesus was going to bleed for her. God, in anticipation of what Jesus was going to do for her on the cross, had declared her whole.
And still He heals and makes whole.
The question is, how can I get my friends and family members and neighbors to Him so they can experience His healing touch?