Someone who reaches out

These times of social distancing have been hard, haven’t they? One of the things that I have discovered is that everyone is missing hugs with relatives. If you want a lovely little video, look at the moment caught on the BBC website where Scottish grandchildren Noah and Isaac could hug their grandparents Bobby and Ellen Bell near Motherwell for the first time, as restrictions up there unlocked last week.

One of my neighbours specifically mentioned that she was missing hugs with her grandson. And how do you explain to 1-year olds that they have to stay 2m if possible from their friends and wider family? That’s all part of why coming out of lockdown is so much more complex than going into it.

We all need human contact, and we all need physical human contact too. And that’s what makes one particular little episode in Luke’s gospel so amazing.

It’s a time when Jesus met a man with leprosy. Now this was of course 2 millenia before the Coronavirus, and yet “lepers”, as they were called, learned social distancing 2000 years before us.

This poor man would have been excluded from normal society, excluded from normal relationships, and even excluded from God, in that in those days a man with leprosy couldn’t come into the Temple.

He was a real outcast. Literally an untouchable.

Perhaps today, some who have been shut out of their families, or have been found guilty of crimes against children might know that feeling in modern day society of being excluded. Not being welcome, being tainted, being an outcast.

All of us feel it to a small extent, because all of us are guilty of actions and words that leave our relationships with others damaged.

But this is my Thought for the Day today: There is someone who reaches out.

Leprosy was a terribly contagious disease that left you socially distanced from others and from God. People certainly wouldn’t touch you for fear of transmission of this killer disease. Just like people today keep their distance in the street out of fear of contracting coronavirus.

But here’s the amazing thing about Jesus. There is someone who reaches out. Like those famous images of Princess Diana with AIDS patients in the 80s, Jesus reaches out to the man with leprosy. And rather than sickness travelling to him, wellness and healing travels from him to the diseased man. And so wonderfully (and you can read about it for yourself in the Bible), the man with leprosy was healed with a touch.

It will be some time before we can all hug and embrace. At least some of the restrictions are lifting. But never forget the God-man Jesus Christ who came down into our world to die for us, and to reach out to us. No-one is too untouchable for him. No-one needs to be socially distanced from him.

Call on him today as your Rescuer and King, and he will come right down into your life, with you and for you. There is someone who reaches out. Thanks for listening and God bless.