4.08.10
Mark 6:56
"They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed."
I was watching tv the other day and was completely enthralled with a show called "Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader". This show matches adult contestants against elementary age students and ask them elementary aged questions. The goal is to see if they can remember the simplest of math or history or geography. It seems pretty easy right, but some of the questions were stuff that I couldn't remember to save my life. As soon as the host said the right answer I thought to myself "how did I not know that?". We forget sometimes that if we haven't been around something for a while we can forget even the most elementary of concepts.
Sometimes in life we forget the simplest of things. We are so busy with life and so focused on the "what we have to do's" that we forget about some of the most basic concepts of life. I am thankful to serve a God that reminds of the simplest of things.
In the Mark text above the folks that were coming to Jesus weren't looking for Jesus to hang out with them for hours on end or even for Jesus to give them anything. They simply wanted to touch just "the edge" of his cloak, the smallest bit of him that they could get their hands on. They begged and pleaded with Jesus just for a stitch of the fabric on his clothing, and the beauty of the text is that it goes onto say that those who did touch him were healed. Their trust that there was something special about this man Jesus healed them and it all started because they touched just the edge of his cloak. They left work and their "to do's" just to get in the presensce of the one they knew could heal them. Everything else around them seemed to disappear when they heard that Jesus was around.
When it comes to our own faith do we get too wrapped up in the do's and dont's of Christianity and forget to just reach out and touch the edge of the cloak of the healer? Are we trying too desperately to have the right things to say or be looked upon with such a title or with such prestige that we forget that we should just reach out for the edge of his cloak and let him heal us. Do we even remember what it means to be healed? Have we gotten so caught up in the pursuits of a certain lifestyle that we have forgotten what it means to be in the arms of a healer? In other words are we getting in the way of ourselves dropping everything and trusting that if we just reach out for the edge of His cloak we will be healed?
Don't forget the simplest part of the faith is that we have a healer, a Father who loves us so much that He wants for us to just reach out and grasp the edge of his cloak. Sometimes we have to drop the "stuff" that gets in between you and the edge of His cloak.
Thought question: When was the last time you just reached out for the edge of the cloak of the healer and forgot about everything else? When did you put everything else of the faith aside and just gotten in the presensce of the ONE who says "I love you more than you can ever begin to know."?
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Funny you should write this... In Ireland in 2006 a friend of mine who I was staying with at the time, brought me to a healing service being held at a catholic church . The words Catholic/healing service/lay person CANNOT be put together in the same sentence. I was suffering from DEBILITATING headaches at the time, but really didn't put much faith in the fact that these people could heal me. 2 days later I suddenly STOPPED what I was doing and realized that I had not had a headache in 2 days. I had to stop and realize that I didn't want to get past the religion or the legalism , or even the people~ HE wanted to show me that he TRULY IS the Great Physician and He will do what HE wants and in HIS time !!!!! Enough said !!!
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