The following post is written for the Five Minute Friday community who provide a suggested word each Friday as a five-minute writing exercise. I always cheat and write longer. Today I shall try again to stick to the five-minute rule. Today’s word is touch.
God is one of those things in life that sneaks up on you. You need His touch. When you’re lonely, in trouble or in pain, you can’t seem to feel it.
You try to sense Him and usually fail. I know. I’ve been there.
When I think of my five senses, I might put touch at the bottom of the list if I had to prioritize them. I love the sense of sight not only because I’m a visual learner, but because I cherish the way the clouds blush as the sun kisses them good morning and good night. I linger waiting for a baby’s smile or a knowing glance from a loved one.
I cook a lot so I cherish and rely on the smell of baked bread and roasts or cookies in the oven to know when they’re done. The anticipation of tasting what I smell baking is one of the all-time delights of my life.
Several friends cannot hear. I know with a deep awareness of the loss and difficulties in their lives the absence that sense makes. When I walk amid the trees and listen to the birds, the sound of the leaves being brushed by the wind, and the creak of old branches, I forget about myself for a while. This is good. I walk the beach and some part of me reaches out to the sound of the waves.
I take the sense of touch for granted.
My husband fell in love with my mother when she introduced him to the touch of soft flannel sheets. I had to sew a new silk edge to my son’s baby blanket because he ran his fingers over it so often. My friend, who’s a stained glass artist, stepped into my shower to feel the white and topaz-colored stones in the shower. It moves me to see the effect of a touch on people who live alone, starved for someone’s physical touch on their body, just a hand on their shoulder or a good bear hug such as I give one of our widowed parishioners every time I see him. “Oh I needed that!” he always says.
Your soul and mine hunger for God’s touch. Do not neglect recognizing this most important touch of all.
For those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, His touch is everywhere. When you take the time to notice how He’s reaching out to you, you’ll hear deep within, “Oh, I needed that!”
Click here to read what more writers had to say about touch at the Five Minute Friday community.