Touch can be a very powerful thing done in a loving and healthy way. Whether that be shaking hands, a hand on a shoulder or a full blown hug, we humans need to be touched in order to truly “feel” whole.
Growing up, I remember hearing the Gaither song, He Touched Me. The chorus goes like this:
He touched me, oh he touched me
And oh the joy that floods my soul
Something happened and now I know
He touched me and made me whole
Recently I was reading the reflection of a woman whose father was in hospice. One day she went to visit him and was greeted at the door by a nurse who said he had taken a turn for the worse and that it was probably not going to be long before he passed. When she got in the room her father did, indeed appear to be practically lifeless. But he opened his eyes and looked at her and smiled. She took his hand and could barely feel any sign of movement. As she sat there, she looked around the room and she thought about her father’s life and how much he had loved her. And she wanted to do something for him in what might be these last hours. So she went and got a basin of warm water and a cloth and began to carefully bathe him and put lotion on his tired and worn body. And as she did that her father, little by little began to respond to that healing touch. He opened his eyes once again and asked his daughter to sing to him. So she held him in her arms and sang “What a Friend We Have In Jesus” and “Amazing Grace” and “Great Is Thy Faithfulness”. He looked at his daughter, told her that he loved her and that he was ready to go, and slipped into a deep sleep. A few hours later he had passed. And this daughter grieved, she was amazed at the power of touch and love to free her father to move on and to heal her heartache and give her peace.
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