There is power in human touch. If infants are not touched and held, they do not develop physically and emotionally as they should. When our suffering or grief is most intense, a touch by a friend or loved one often speaks more poweerfully than words.

In the Bible, Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26 it is writen that a women with hemorages, considered unclean, touches Jesus’ garment and is made well. In a quite different situation, a respectable leader of the synagogue approaches Jesus and asks him to lay hands on his sick daughter so that she may live. When Jesus reaches the house he takes the girl by the hand and restores life to her.

We are not always cured of our physical ailments, and we wonder whether the absence of a cure is because we lack faith. Yet God’s healing comes in many ways. If we limit our hopes and prayers to the miraculous, we may miss the gifts of grace present in our time of suffering or illness.

Many churches now conduct healing services that include the laying on of hands and anointing with oil. These gestures are a reminder that God desires our health and healing. The presence of touch, along with words of promise, make

clear that God is present with us in times of joy and sorrow, health and sickness, life and death. This anointing, with its source in baptism’s anointing with the sign of the cross, is the sign of God’s faithfulness throughout our lives.

Your touch can call us back to life again, says a beloved Easter hymn. Whatever our situation, God promises to raise us up and to restore us to life. God’s healing touch fills our hearts with a hope that will never die.

Fraternally Yours,

Randy Su'a
Junior Warden