One Touch - Poem

One Touch

With just one touch He healed them

The suffering, sick, lame and blind

All about him the crowds pressing

Seeking healing through his power divine

An ‘unclean’ woman quietly suffered

An eternity of twelve years

Forbidden touch and tender contact

Shedding countless, silent tears

No arms of comfort to hold her

No loving husband’s tender embrace

No sleeping child to rock and cradle

A life of loneliness to face

Hoping she’d go unnoticed

Just one touch, she silently prayed

Of his garment’s most outer edge

Hardly a difference to make

Brushing the hem with her fingertips

She turned quickly about

But he felt, turned and asked

Sensing virtue from him had gone out

Trembling she bowed before him

And told what she had done

With faith and hope in her Savior

To him, for healing, she’d come

‘Daughter, go in peace,’ he told her

‘Thy faith hath made thee whole’

And earth’s Master and Redeemer

Quietly healed both body and soul

Savior, may I reach and touch thee

Just the tip of thy lowly hem

That my imperfections might disappear

And I might be made whole again

Janice Harten

Mark 5: 25-34

March 28, 2001

Copyright © 2012 Janice Harten.  All rights reserved