SEEING HIS GLORY

The air was thick with the smell of humidity and human sweat, and in it, chaos engulfed a single and exhausted woman. She staggered forward in fear, desperately attempting to navigate the crowd. The wave of people began to pivot from left to right.  She was frail and weak, and quickly became lost within the human avalanche.

The woman’s face met with the gravel and dirt in her exhausted collapse. She cried out as the bones in her hand were crushed beneath a stranger’s filthy sandal. She was so thirsty, and dirt caked her nostrils. Her lips cracked and splintered with each breath she struggled to take.

It had taken all her power to get to this place; her relentless bleeding withdrawing every drop of life from her for twelve long years. Yet she had heard stories. She had wondered. But in such hopelessness, she had no expectation; her desperation led her to this place. She longed for it to end, even if that meant her life.

Placing her bruised knee on the sharp gravel, she pulled her body forward, and felt her last bit of strength disappear. Her heartbeat weakened. So far from even the light of day, the crowd closed in, and left her a deposit of lifeless bones beneath human feet.

Her next decision seemed to be her very last one. She extended her hand, and it landed exhaustively on grey linen; its torn fibers caked with dried mud and dirt. The tip of her finger only brushed the garment before she rested it. Such relief in this finality, but she had yet to realize the implications of her reach.

“Who was it that touched me?”

The call of Christ the Messiah stifled the crowd.

The woman, frightened and horrified, became overwhelmed by an invigorating surge of power! Yet, in this single moment, she felt more than an expected finality. Her anguish, that had become so numb, vanished in this moment of intense healing. The surge coursed through her body in a thunderous wave, and she breathed deeply. It was a breath she waited 12 years to draw, and her eyes filled with cleansing tears. The desperate and hopeless woman had received the riveting wave of His Glory; the Glory of the True Messiah, and our Savior. The fringe that her finger had but grazed, belonged to the One she had heard of; the One she had been told so much about. In that instant, something rang true, and purified   her heart.

Jesus met her eyes with a heart stopping stare.  She gazed up at the radiance of His face; the true Glory of Jesus Christ. The crowd shouted for the King to move on, but He would not allow it.

Melting into the submission of His Glory, the woman uttered her admission, not yet in full understanding of His miracle.

“Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”

Christ had not just healed the woman, but He stopped to find her. He affirmed the Truth in His power. More than physical healing, Christ delivered abundance, comfort, and resolve, far from the agony and darkness that had become her life. Jesus had embraced her in Truth, in the Providence of the Father, Sovereign God, and Creator.

He met her with His own heart, and loved her there, in the most magnificent, unrelenting way.

This woman had only to brush her frail finger, one exhausted reach, to know the love of the Fathers Beloved Son; to know healing, restoration, and joy.

That……is the miracle power of Christ for the woman who had bled for 12 years, as proven with historical documentation.

Matthew 9:20-22, Mark 5:24-34, and Luke 8:42-48.

That is also what Christ has done for me and given me life. It is her story; it is my story, and it is fact.

One finger. From desperation or from determination, it is simply a reach. It is an act of the heart. It is extending your willingness to believe. It is a call to the Messiah. One moment of belief IS the extension that proves hope. In your reach for Jesus, He will do more than heal and restore you, He will FIND YOU. And you will find Him, and eternal, abundant life.

Just reach ~