Touch: We don't know what we have 'till it's gone
Perhaps you are the type that loves to hug, shake hands, and such. Perhaps you're a bit more stand-off-ish. During this time of "social distancing" and a dramatic decrease of physical touch, I'm willing to bet that we all beginning to long to touch someone without anxiety of spreading sickness.
There are several reasons that touch is important to our mental health, our relational health, and even our spiritual health.
A. Touch is one of the "Five Love Languages"
Check out the link above for more details, but here's a summary of the concept.
We all feel love most significantly through one or more of these "languages":
This is a classic book about marriage and relationships. It's one of my most-recommended books.
Order the book on Amazon (and thank God for all those helping to deliver everything that we all are ordering online, like those that work for the US Postal Service, UPS, Amazon, etc.)
B. Touch is part of "The Blessing"
- Meaningful and appropriate touch (here's the section about touch)
- A spoken message of love and acceptance
- Attaching “high value” to the person being blessed
- Picturing a special future for that person
- An active commitment to fulfill the blessing
The main context that the authors of this book discuss "The Blessing" is from parent to child, but they describe many other contexts in which The Blessing applies.
Order the book on Amazon (and thank God for whoever delivers it to you)
C. Jesus used physical touch to heal people, which He could have just spoken words to heal them.
- A woman knew that just touching His robe would heal her. Jesus felt power go out of Him when the touch occurred. Jesus did not scold her for the touch... Luke 8:43-46, and parallel passages
- He he brought a dead girl back to life, and "took her by the hand" to help her stand up. Luke 8:53-55
- He healed blind men by touching them. Matthew 20:32-34
- He healed a man whose "skin was covered with leprosy" Luke 5:12-13
Even for those that aren't usually very "touchy", I'll bet that you are starting to really miss being able to shake someone's hand, or hug someone (that you aren't quarantined with).
Like many things, we tend to not really know what we've got 'till it's gone. We don't appreciate the blessings that we've been given until we have to live without them. Today, I'm thinking about physical touch, prompted by a sermon by PJ Lewis at
The Well-Kingsburg.
I predict that we as a society will explicitly value things that we are prevented from doing during this time of quarantine...including, or maybe especially...
physical touch.