I Touched The Hem Of His Garment

 Do you know the story in the Bible of the lady with the issue of blood? She had tried so many things to find healing. The doctors took all her money but did not help her at all. In her time and place a women with an issue of blood was considered unclean, for as long as it lasted. Whatever she touched would be considered unclean too. She had lived this way for twelve long years, unable to touch or be touched, without causing others to be unclean. She would have been a social pariah. 

Then she heard about a great healer, one who was making the blind to see, the deaf to hear, and the lame to walk. Hope sprang up within her heart. With all her might she would try to reach Jesus. It was not hard to find where he was, he was so popular crowds followed him everywhere. In fact when she got to the place where Jesus was, the crowds were so pressing she couldn't walk up to him. In desperation she knelt down. Then crawling on her hands and knee's over the rocky dirty road she wormed her way through that crowd to Jesus' feet. 

I can see her there, her heart so full of fear and despair. The crowd unfeeling, kicking and shoving her this way and that. She couldn't quite get to him so she thought, if I can just touch the hem of his garment, it will be enough. I don't know exactly what she expected, but when she touched the hem of our Lords garment, his power flowed out to her. His love was so strong his garments could not contain it. Her faith and hope then stopped him in his tracks. 

The crowd had been pressing him all day, yet they hadn't received what she did. They thought it foolish indeed when he stopped and said, "Who touched me?" His reply when they murmured about it, "I felt power go out from me", puzzled them even more. When the woman realized that she was caught, she was sore afraid that she had angered Jesus. She came trembling before him fearing the worst. So falling down before him she confessed what she had done. She knew she had been healed for she had felt his healing power flow through her fingertips, and into her tired sore body like a stream of pure water cleansing and healing as it went. Would Jesus now condemn her for her rash act? Would he take away that healing and send her on her way?

But Jesus did not condemn her, instead in front of all the people he said, "Daughter, your faith has made you whole, go in peace!" He called her family, his own child. The joy that must have rushed through her heart at that moment, would have been beyond expression. He did not condemn he at all, he said he loved her, by calling her his daughter. She knew in that moment that she was his, marked forever by his love and healing. I do not think she went on her way. I like to think she was one of the women who ministered to him from then on. Hanging on his every word and being as near to him each day as she could.

As I was writing the words to the following poem, I tried to put myself in this woman's place. How would it have felt to be so alone in pain and sorrow?! Filled with an illness for years that was not your fault, and to be made a pariah because of it. And then came Jesus and healed me and called me his daughter. His love marking me forever as one of his children. I think joy is just not a good enough word, nor even rapture would describe it enough. I think she felt a feeling beyond words! 

I hope you find comfort in this story and in this poem. Life can be so difficult, often not of our making, but if we bring it to Jesus, if we kneel at his feet, he will help us. For he is the healer of all broken hearts.

 

I Touched The Hem Of His Garment

So many years I'd suffered such deep and wasting pain,

doctors had not helped me but treated me in vain. 

So when I heard of Jesus I made a desperate plan,

I will reach the mighty healer if I can.

 

There were so many gathered I thought I didn't have a prayer,

the crowd pressed him so tightly, how could I reach him there?

He was drawing ever closer so crawling on my knee's,

I was determined that this moment I would seize.

 

I could see his feet draw nearer, as he was passing me,

the tears within my eyes now made it hard for me to see.

With hand outstretched tho kicked and crushed I couldn't cry a word,

the hem was all I touched upon the Lord.

I touched the hem of his garment and instantly I knew,

His love flowed through my fingers and in my heart it grew.

I touched the hem of his garment and instantly I knew,

Jesus' power and love had healed me too.

 

Then Jesus stopped and said, "Who touched me!" and I was sore afraid,

there was terror in my heart for the mistake that I had made. 

Was he angry at my sin, I was unclean yet touching him,

would he condemn for my sinful desperate whim?

The crowd was now murmuring, they were puzzled by his words,

they'd been touching his all morning so they thought it was absurd.

But he said, "Power has gone from me, at someone's single touch."

they thought it very foolish and too much.

I fell on my knee's at Jesus' feet, my heart full of despair,

He said, "My Daughter stand up, I've heard your anguished prayer!

Go in peace my daughter, your faith has made you whole",

Now staying near to Jesus is my goal.

I touched the hem of his garment and instantly I knew,

his love flowed through my fingers and in my heart it grew.

I touched the hem of his garment and instantly I knew,

Jesus' power and love had healed me too.