A Touch of Life

The touch…the feel…the fabric of our lives. It’s from a cotton commercial, but it sort of encapsulates the human experience. Without touch, what meaning would our lives have? To love someone but not be able to demonstrate it through touch. To not be able to show a mother’s or father’s pride in a child who has just done something amazing for the first time, through a squeezy hug. No more “let’s join hands” at church, let alone “laying on of hands.” No more petting one’s dog or patting him on the head.

Without touch, parents could not care for their children. In fact, touch is so important that the lack of it can even be fatal. Our hands have abiding in them the power to comfort, to encourage, to heal broken hearts. God gave us touch as an extension—a demonstration—of His very nature. Jesus, when He was on the earth, touched the little children with hands of blessing. He touched those who needed healing. And in an act of humble love and servanthood, he washed his disciples’ feet.

When we are scared, we need a hand to hold. When we are excited, we need a friend to share an embrace with. When we are sad, we need a shoulder to cry on and maybe a hand to rub our back. The need for touch is programmed into us—it’s like water to a flower—it brings life. It can prevent wilting. It can snap us back to health. It can make all the difference.

Some of us have a lower need for physical touch than others, and some have been wounded by the touch of others—that touch was abusive and was never what God intended. But touch is still important, even if we might want to avoid it, or even fear it at times. Touch is the vehicle God chose for imparting blessing. It is a picture of His love for us as we cradle a baby, bandage a knee, hold a toddler on our hip.

In the New Testament, the Greek word for “touch” is haptomai, which means “to attach oneself to.” It extends beyond the physical touch to encompass fellowship and the connection of ongoing relationship. Touch, whether of the physical or of the heart, is a vehicle of attaching ourselves to other people. God made us to be “touchers,” to be relational. It is a gift of hope and assurance—that we belong; we are “attached” to God and to others. He has given us the Body as an anchor and a blueprint of our life in Christ. And how can a body be truly connected without touch?

The wispy touch of a feather on your cheek. The trickle of a hot shower’s water down your back. The gentle, sometimes tentative grasp of a small child’s hand. The adoring clasp of an older woman’s hands over ours—accompanied by sweet wisdom and encouraging affirmations. These are the experiences, the moments, the opportunities that allow us to truly live. The individual pieces of an intricately woven life—a life that is made to touch, and be touched—and thereby strengthen and ornament the fabric God is fashioning of our lives.