“And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him and touched the hem of his garment ...” (Matthew 9:20)

    Only God knows how she had suffered. For twelve years she had been carrying the burden of her illness and humiliation. For twelve years she had felt the outcast ... forsaken, forlorn, alone and ashamed. With whom could she talk and share her burden? Doctors had taken all of her money and hadn’t healed her. She was desperate. She was as low as a person could go. Downtrodden, crawling, she reached and stretched until finally she was just able to touch ... the hem of the garment of the healer.

    One touch ... was enough!

    She was healed!

    She was whole!

    She was blessed by the Master!

Jesus turned around, and when He saw her He said, “Be of good cheer, daughter; your faith has made you well.” (Matthew 9:22 NKJV)

    Jesus, even with the press of the crowd all around Him, knew there had been a healing. His very presence invited the touch. The power wasn’t in the garment...it was in the touch. Faith stretched a weary hand to reach and to touch the glory, the power and the might of the Son of God.

    And all it took was a touch.

    I’ve known what it feels like to be so low I could only crawl to the Master’s hem. My life has been hard; often painful. At one time I was a young widow with little babies to feed. At another I was a single mom, struggling to juggle bills and make ends meet. Even a few years ago, all in the span of just a few short months, I lost my Mother to heart failure, a brother to cardiac arrest and found out my little daughter had a serious heart condition. I wanted to cry out, “God, why have you forsaken me?”

    But I knew He hadn’t. Trials of life are a part of living. We will face loss, crumble under insecurities, tremble in fear and see expectations that turn to failures.

The power wasn’t in the garment...it was in the touch.

    How great it is to know we face nothing alone. How awesome it is that while we are at our lowest, most desperate point, we only need to reach out and touch the hem!

Wherever He entered into villages, cities, or in the country, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged Him that they might just touch the hem of His garment. And as many as touched Him were made well. (Mark 9:56 NKJV)