“Sometimes, a touch heals more than words, presence more than platitudes.  And I now understand this is what God accomplished in the incarnation.

By becoming flesh and blood, God reached out a hand from the distance of heaven and touched humankind.  Bridging the distance of holiness, He not only became someone we can touch but became the one reaching to touch us.”

- Michele Cushatt, Relentless

Why is touch important?

A year ago today, we all came home to start a pandemic quarantine as a family.  In the 365 days that followed, I have only been touched by my husband and children.  This has awakened an awareness of my need for touch and it surprised me. I never would have guessed how touch starved I could feel. I long for hugs from children on the church patio, gentle touches on the arm from a listening friend, and silly bumps from co-workers while passing near the coffee bar.  Touch is a language all its own, speaking words I need to feel: I see you, I like you, I’m listening.

Touch, and my need for it, has highlighted what I’ve known for years. As a person living with a rare and undiagnosed disease, I have a deep need to be understood. There is no one else with lungs like mine.  I’ve met no one with eyes like mine.  In the same way living in a pandemic has caused me to find creative ways to meet my need for touch, living with an undiagnosed disease has caused me to look for ways to meet my need to be understood. Living without of a group of people sharing the same diagnosis in a medical chart, my need to feel seen and understood can be overwhelming.

But God…

Honestly, apart from Jesus, that need cannot be met. By grace, God has met my need to be touched and understood in three beautiful ways.

1. He gave me friends who willingly joined me in my medical journey, learning the lingo, and asking good questions along the way.  They pray with and for me.  When they can, they share the same space with me, hug me and hold my hand.

2. He gave me doctors who humbly acknowledge that my body is different, more complex than average, and more dependent on caution.  By putting my chart in a mental stack of “special treatment” cases, they see me more clearly and attempt to know me more deeply.  My heart is touched by their extra care.

3. He gave me Jesus who reaches through scripture and touches me, risk-free, as the One who truly understands what it’s like to live in my uniquely broken body. In the privacy of my bedroom, where I am daily reminded of my weakness by the shape of my ribs and the scar across my back, I am seen and touched by Him as well.  

The Only One Who Knows

Jesus is fully human and lived a life full of human experiences.  Yet, he is also fully God, existing outside of time, seeing our lives develop from within the womb to our present day.  He is all-knowing, the only One who can understand the physical, mental and emotional struggles you and I experience.  And he is all-powerful, the only One who cannot be weakened or overwhelmed by our human struggles.

His life is full of examples of both his humanity and his deity.

• Jesus touched the leper and miraculously did not contract the disease (Luke 5:13).  

• The bleeding woman touched his robe, was healed, and Jesus noticed (Matt 9:20).  

• Jesus wept at the death of a friend then raised Lazarus back to life (John 11).

Be Comforted

If you feel you are the only one who knows what it’s like to be you, you are right; no one can know fully what your life feels like.  But you are also wrong, because Jesus who lived in a human body with human feelings and human needs knows you intimately (Psalm 139) and understands.  John Calvin said, “Christ has put on our feelings along with our flesh.”

The comfort is this: The One who wept at the death of his friend, weeps for your pain also. The same One who touched the leper, can touch you too. In your pain and in your need, you are understood, completely, by Jesus. 

Will you take time today to ask God to bring you confidence that you are seen and known by him?  

Looking for a community where you can be known?

Join me and other faith-filled women living with Rare & Chronic Illness in my FREE Group. I’d love to see you there.