Ana Hinojosa, speaker for evening worship July 8, shared how the storms of COVID-19 raged throughout her family, as her father almost died from virus complications. And yet, in a woman-touching-the-hem of Jesus experience (Mark 5), after seven days in the hospital with all his vital organs failing, he left the hospital and is alive today.
From my perspective, the story was not about the amount of her family’s faith; rather, it was about the unlimited power of Jesus in whom they placed their faith. Also, it was not about the life or death of her father, but rather, the life of Jesus who offers healing and hope differently in different situations.
Image by Laurie Oswald Robinson.
Most importantly, Jesus did not wait to hear the woman qualify her pain. Nor did he quantify the level of her trust before his overflowing power and grace met her trembling fingers, daring to reach out in an act of faith. She reached out, he reached back. Trust from her hand, tenderness from his.
Eighteen months into the pandemic, waves and winds still buffet many lives in many lands; and there has been the "flow of blood" in grieving families. Still yet, Mark 5 invites us to struggle through the hurricane of our doubts or outcomes that differ from Ana’s. As we do, we reach up and out to touch the fringe of his healing cloak. He waits to wrap us up in its folds of peace and to carry us through the pain into the eye of the storm.
