Look but don’t touch
This fresh set of Daily Devotions is being provided for our LCA/NZ family, friends and visitors to help us to keep our eyes on Jesus as we face unsettling times. They can be used by families and individuals as part of the LCA/NZ’s Church@Home resources to encourage us and build trust in our Heavenly Father during this season of uncertainty and physical isolation.
by Sal Huckel
Click here for your printable verse to carry with you today.
Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.’ (John 20:27)
Read John 20:16-17; 26-29
It is interesting to read in our Gospel story, post resurrection, these accounts of Jesus appearing first to Mary, and about a week later inviting Thomas to reach out his hands to touch Jesus’ side.
Mary’s first reaction is to want to hold on to Jesus but he tells her she may not. Yet Thomas receives Jesus’ grace in his unbelief and is invited to do that very thing – to touch Jesus and feel for himself the truth of Jesus’ resurrection.
Right now we are more like Mary in many ways. We cannot touch and hold on to the Lord – or each other –in physical ways. We are the Body – the hands and feet of Jesus on this earth – yet our hands are held back from touching and our feet have very limited freedom. We cannot easily even take comfort to a loved one or friend, and when we do there’s a ‘look but don’t touch’ instruction. In order to save lives we are prevented from meeting a very basic need, human touch, outside our immediate household.
We know of stories about babies in orphanages dying, despite their food and material needs being met, because they did not receive the human touch they needed to stay alive. Our Creator designed us with human touch being this essential to existence. We look forward to these restrictions being over and in the meantime we must look and pray for ways the hands and feet of Jesus can bring healing, hope and help to our loved ones and communities.
Lord Jesus, we grieve that we, the Body of Christ as your hands and feet in our world, are prevented from meeting each others’ needs in person at the moment. We ask you to stand in that gap for us and to bring the love and comfort that many need but cannot experience physically at this time. Help us to continue to find ways we can operate within these restrictions, as we know that doors and hidden-away rooms are not barriers to you. Amen.
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