No feeling matches holding a newborn baby. That little life is so special and wondrous, but the most memorable experience for me was the feeling of that tiny hand wrapped around just one of my fingers. Do you remember later walking in the playground hand in hand with your child?
Touch conveys so much. When the leper begged Jesus was mercy, Jesus not only healed him; Jesus touched him (Luke 5:13). He didn’t need to do that, and lesser men might have recoiled from the stinking leper with open sores. I suspect the touch of the Master’s hand meant almost as much as the healing itself.
Do you remember folk-dancing classes in Junior High School? “Let’s all join hands and dance in a circle!” I blushed to hold her hand, but it was a joyous occasion!
Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law by touching her hand (Matthew 8:15). In the next chapter, the synagogue ruler begs Jesus to touch his daughter’s hand and heal her, but the little girl was already dead when they arrived. Can you imagine her father’s grief as he touched her cold, lifeless hand? Still, Jesus took her by the hand and raised her from the dead (Matthew 9:25). What inexpressible joy her father must have felt to hold his daughter’s hand once more, but this time full of warmth and life!
Time won’t allow us to tell how Jesus reached out and took Peter’s hand, allowing him to walk on water once more (Matthew 14:31). Jesus blessed the little children by laying his hands on them (Matthew 19). A woman who was disabled and unable to stand up straight was healed when Jesus laid his hands on her (Luke 13:13). Before Jesus returned to the Father, he lifted his hands and blessed his disciples (Luke 24:50).
As we close this thought, use your imagination. Picture a fearful time. Now feel the hand of your father taking your hand. Everything is going to be alright.
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand (John 10:27 – 29).