Do you need a hug?
Greet one another with a holy kiss. Romans 16:16
Loving Father,
After being asked for a hug
by an elderly woman outside a senior center recently,*
I am more aware than ever of the “famine of touch”
many in our world experience.
Those of us who are married or who have children
may not give much thought
to how single and elderly people
may long for appropriate touch.
One pastor exhorts,
“Churches should provide a remedy [to the famine of touch]
by being a place where healthy and appropriate touch is encouraged.”**
Lord, may we become specialists at “gospel touch,”
which another pastor describes as
“meant to resemble the touch normatively appropriate
between family members….”
Because many of us have been harmed by abusive touch,
may we remember and guard against
“abusive, neglectful, presumptuous, or sensual touch
[which] has no place in the tender touch of gospel life and ministry.”***
Help us, Lord, to recover
a view of the body
and of holy touch
that accords with your view.
In the name of Jesus who became flesh for us.
Amen.
Read John 1:14; 2 John 12; Psalm 139:13-14.
*To read this story, see my Substack article.
**To think more about how God made our bodies for touch, see Sam Allberry’s excellent book, What God Has to Say about Our Bodies.
***Zack Eskwine, quoted in Allberry, 192.
