The Touch of the Savior’s Hand

I was sitting on my sister’s couch one evening severely depressed. I had been this way for months, and as I stared at nothing in particular, I suddenly noticed my 3-year-old niece, Katie, looking just like Cindy Lou Who in her pink night dress, standing in front of me looking very thoughtful. Then she skipped up to me, gave me a hug and said, “I love you Uncle Muck” (She couldn’t say Mike).  

As she skipped off to play, a delight and loneliness swept over me all at once. Even as I reveled in my niece’s hug, I became acutely aware that her touch was the first human touch I had experienced in a very long time. It was like a cool glass of water to a soul dying of thirst. 

I suspect that the leper in Matthew 8:1-4 must have felt the same way. So desperate that he risked walking through a hostile crowd to kneel at the Savior’s feet, the leper said, “Lord, if you are willing…you can make me clean.” 

With a heart full of compassion, the Savior “reached out His hand and touched the man…” 

He touched this diseased and lonely man! 

Forbidden by the law, but compelled by love, Jesus, lay his hand on the man’s grotesquely deformed body and he was healed! He was cleansed of his uncleanness. And though the passage doesn’t tell us explicitly, I wouldn’t be surprised that he was made clean of his sins as well – forgiven! 

Friend, has it been a long, long season since someone has touched you? Are you alone in this world? Are you weighed down by a heavy load of sins too heavy to bear?  

 Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is as willing now to cleanse you of your sins as He was to heal the leper! Ask Him to forgive you and make you clean on the inside. He will…He most assuredly will! He will touch you!