I find it interesting that although we talk about ‘managing
to keep in touch’ with people through technology, the irony is that the one
thing we aren’t doing is touch. We link up with people through sight and sound,
but not with physical contact. That inability to touch is a loss. We are now
reduced to bows, hand waves or facial gestures.
What is more uncomfortable is the loss of touch when we are
in contact with those we love; those people we would like to hug, hold or kiss.
I kind of miss during prayer fellowships when we have to shake hands with
friends and pat them. I realise it may be a bit agonising, because in the
absence of physical contact, for those who find themselves in solitary
isolation. Amidst all the serious concerns about this pandemic, one that’s
overlooked is what we might call ‘touch deficiency’.
Although we take touch for granted, it is extraordinarily
powerful and therapeutic. Medical science has confirmed how vital touch is for
babies, yet that importance continues throughout our life.
Touch has been shown to improve our immune system, reduce
pain, decrease blood pressure and alleviate depression. Sometimes, it raises
our self-esteem when someone pats you in the back for a job well done.
Touch conveys intimacy and can often say more than words.
Touch can carry different meanings too: comfort, warning, rebuke or love. Touch
shows the importance of physical contact; that we can say of some emotional
event that we were ‘touched’ by it.
Sadly, the very fact that so much has been made over the
last few years about ‘inappropriate touching’ testifies to the power of touch.
I have realised that touch plays an important role in the
Christian faith. On almost every page of the Gospels we read of some aspect of
physical contact. The baby Jesus is wrapped in cloths and put in a manger. As
an adult, Jesus bathes feet and heals by touch. Ultimately, Jesus is betrayed
by a kiss, killed by physical force and carried away into a grave. When raised
from the dead, Jesus confirms that he is no vision or ghost by allowing himself
to be touched by his disciples. Remembering this, the apostle John wrote, ‘We
proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and
seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands’. In
Jesus, the remote and untouchable God becomes literally someone who is at hand.
The physical emphasis of Christianity continues into the
church. It’s there in the new covenant that Jesus created which focuses not on
a form of words, but on the very physical elements of bread and wine. It’s
there in baptisms and in the laying on of hands for healing. It’s there in
greeting one another ‘with a holy kiss’ or whatever modern form we find
culturally appropriate.
Touch is valuable. It should be part of our lives and it
should be part of our fellowships. Sadly, touch reminds us at the deepest level
how much we are valued and loved. It’s a fascinating thought that, in Jesus,
human beings are able to touch the God who loves us so much that he put on
flesh and became one of us.
So if you are suffering ‘touch deficiency’ at the
moment, remember that God understands that need. When ‘this is all over’ may we
all be those who value touch a little bit more and are more ready to share it
with those who need it and receive it ourselves. And, in the meantime, to use a
phrase that can be a cliché but is in fact a reality, may we all know something
of God’s touch at this time.
By:
Lorvic
Osorio
