I’ve had
that kind of wound, and if I’m real honest, the scab’s still newly forming.
That kind of wound when all you held dear got stripped away—one thing after
another. Years of bleeding, wondering when all is this going to stop. But it
keeps on, and now I’m skin and bones left pleading, “Jesus, stop the bleeding.”
What do you
do when you have a wound that just won’t heal? You grab hold of Jesus.
Three
different gospel accounts tell us of a woman who had suffered constant bleeding
for twelve years. Matthew 9 gives us insight into her thinking: “If I can just
touch his robe, I will be healed.” In other words, if I can just be close to
Jesus, come in contact with this divine person, this God incarnate, things will
be better. My life will be better—if I can be close to Him, if I can touch Him.
Well, this woman, at the end of her rope and desperate as she was, only had to
touch the fringe of his robe, and immediately the bleeding stopped. Jesus asked
in Luke 8:45, “Who touched me?” No one would admit to it, and Peter reasoned
that the entire crowd was pressing up against him. Jesus replied in verse 46, “Someone deliberately
touched me, for I felt healing power go out from me.”
Oh, to
deliberately touch Jesus. We all desire His benefits—the healing that can come.
But think about just touching Him—having contact with Him, being near Him. That
is where the sweetness lies.
When the
woman realized that she could not stay hidden, she fell to her knees and
confessed that it was her. Jesus said, “Daughter, your faith has made you
well.”
I want that
type of faith—that faith that says the only thing that can cure me is closeness
with my Savior. That being with Him will mend that wound and soothe my soul.
And even though my circumstances may not change, the joy stops bleeding out and
instead starts swelling up. And the tears that welled up in my eyes mix with
scripture that floods my soul and washes clean the wound that would not heal.
And all the stripping away was worth the intimacy now found with the one who
fills my soul with joy again.
What do you
do when you have a wound that just won’t heal? You grab hold of Jesus. You get into scripture and read His word.
You do everything you can to be close to Him. You hang onto Him like He is your
very life and breath. You grab hold and don’t let go.
