Touch
As sentient beings enfolded deep within the womb, one of the first senses we experience is touch. Simply put, we were born for touch, and we crave it. In fact, without tactile communication, we can literally starve to death on an emotional level. Life is a contact sport, so a considerable range of sensations, from the most featherweight of caresses to the sudden, stinging slap, are something we become rapidly familiar with. Remember the thrill when our first romantic crush took our fingers in a tentative clasp, or the electricity of lip on lip? These become burned into our memories. There’s a whole realm of wordless transmission behind these gestures; the subtext of life.
But not all touch is tactile, nor for that matter, positive. We’re bombarded with over five-hundred advertisements a day! That’s a lot of strangers pawing at us, intruding on personal space and vying for attention. With the recent birthing of the #metoo movement, we are being made painfully aware of the outrageous amount of exploitive sexual contact that has been going on at all levels of society. It’s enough to turn you into a paranoid, except, it seems, they really are out to get you.
The problem with growing older is you become painfully aware of the fragility of life, and how truly vulnerable we are to evil lurking around every corner. As Solomon so succinctly put it “Increase knowledge, increase sorrow”. Hardly a day goes by without our hearing some tale of calamity, misery, disease, disaster or grief. All around us, people we know are touched by malignant forces we couldn’t possibly have seen coming: sudden bereavement, the report of cancer, the death of a marriage. Mere existence batters us; is it surprising we become jaded, stale, cynical and skeptical about the goodness of anything? Satan is running rampant on his mandate of “kill, steal and destroy” and it would seem he’s prevailing.
But the Almighty, the Omnipotent, also has a hand in our survival, or rather, a full grasp. Without the knowledge of His personal and passionate involvement, the battle of life would hardly seem worth the candle. Several passages in Scripture make me suspect we’ve greatly underestimated the intensity of His jealous regard. As Israel were facing the daunting task of returning to their homeland after long exile, He breaks out in a fierce maternal feeling, conveyed by a set of images.
For I,’ says the Lord, ‘will be a wall of fire all around her, and I will be the glory in her midst.’ ”
For thus says the Lord of hosts: … …he who touches you touches the apple of His eye. Zechariah 2:5,8 NKJV
Oh, if we could only dwell in the place of these promises! How much sweeter, easier, would life be? This potentiality of security, dwelling in the palm of His hand, waits for us, but we have to chose it. The simple truth is that we most often put ourselves in the way of danger and destruction when we touch things we shouldn’t. We open the door to malevolent forces that could never assail us if we walked in basic faith and obedience. We bring it on ourselves by not staying on the safe ground allotted to us.
He is aware of the numbers of enemies, much too strong, and much too smart, for these little sacs of water called our bodies, we carry around on the earth. He knows how precarious our voyage through this world really is. But He is with us. Revisit Psalm 91; an ardent, dynamic expression of just how great, how thorough the range of His protective encompassing really is.
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flies by day; Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wastes at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. Psalm 91:1-10 KJV
Nothing makes me more frustrated than the unreasonable variety of attacks I've suffered since I started using the computer. E-mail addresses have been invaded and collapsed, data down-loads have snarled and gnarled up the software for no reason, spy-wear and viruses have afflicted my system despite considerable security measures. Considering how cautious and circumspect I am, compared to the way others troll the Internet, these constant scourges are ridiculously out of proportion. It's an on-going warfare against the horde of eevvil nanobots roving the Web, and the one place of my life where I feel, on a very visceral level, the foul, vicious interface of the enemy. Frankly, it greatly vexes me. However, I’m clinging like a limpet to a promise, to see this bane settled, once and for all.
We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps him, and the wicked one does not touch him. 1 John 5:18 KJV
The indwelling presence of Jesus Himself drives the enemy off our territories. How much are we aware of this? It's real, but it has to be enforced to be experienced.
What's touching you these days? What's firing up your energy, heart and imagination? Is it supernatural, or merely superhuman?
cb