How about those hands…

 “It’s in the little things that life is made…

the smile, the touch, the kindness.

From the little become the great, and

greatness lies in these small acts.”

- Anonymous

Have you noticed it is the small things that so often make a difference?  A knowing glance, a quiet nod of affirmation, a kind word, a polite gesture or a gentle touch – the little things that shape our life experience.  It’s said when people know each other well; “…a smile is better than a word, a wink than a smile, and a nod than a wink,”

But the touch…ah the touch…now there is something…little is more powerful than the human touch!  Maybe that’s why we have so many delicate sensory receptors in our fingers.  Touch protects us from too much heat, cold, things that are too sharp, and permits us to sense the correct pressure to firmly shake a person’s hand or gently pick up a fragile egg.

Of the primary senses of the fingers, pressure has the most receptors.  Take a moment to brush your thumb gently across your fingertips noticing the pressure and sensation.  Then run the fingers of one hand lightly down the palm side fingers of the other hand – note the difference between the two activities.  Now close your eyes and softly touch your face – forehead, cheeks, eyebrows, lips and nose – sense the differences in texture.

Touch…what a gift!

While touch does have a ‘reporting function’ – heath, cold, pressure and pain – it is NOT just the colliding of electrons from skin to skin, or skin to object, that brings the real magic to this sensory phenomenon.  There is much more than meets ‘the touch’ as it were.

Touching another person, for example, can be a wondrous sensory experience.  There is little doubt the one touching and the one receiving, both feel a sense of heightened connection.  It’s hard to find something more satisfying and sometimes more intimate, than the loving caress from the hand one person to another.

More than a physical phenomenon

In the scriptures Christ finds himself amongst a large crowd of people.  He says to his disciples, “Who touched me?”  One of them, with a ‘…you have got to be kidding me…’ expression replies,  “…there is a crowd of people around you – bumping, pushing – and you are asking who touched you!”  Jesus responds, “…somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me…” (Luke 8:46)

A lot of people were touching Christ physically, but someone had touched him spiritually AND taken something from him – a transfer of spirit from Christ’s spiritual body to a woman and she was healed.

It is a spiritual thing

It could be argued that fingers and touch are a metaphor for something deeper – a channel of communication – a conduit whereby spirit is transferred from one person to another.  It slips through the skin, muscle, bone, and reaches the soul.  Touch transcends the physical – it really is spiritual in every way.

Sometimes when we hear Biblical and other miraculous reports that happen to people and we think of it as strange; it even makes some people a little uncomfortable.  In a real sense, it is about the laying on of hands.  This isn’t something limited to the realm of spirit filled Pentecostal or Evangelical people….we all do it every day in the most common of ways – a shake of the hand, a pat on the back, or a ‘high-five.’

Everybody ‘…lays on hands…’

Most all parents tell stories of how a distraught child was calmed when taken in their arms.  This was simply transferring peace or assurance from parent to child through the laying on of hands.  A soothing word of course helps, but it is the touch that counts. 

As adults, we all identify with times when we were fortified by a pat on the arm or a brief hug in a moment of need.  It doesn’t even have to be a moment of need.  Maybe it’s just the greeting to a friend or family member.  It is just nice to receive an affirmation by human contact that comes in this way.

Athletes understand how important a thoughtful slap on the shoulder, from a teammate or coach,  returns the spirit of confidence for their game. 

It is instinctive that we reach out to touch those who find themselves in need – even more so toward those with whom we have a bond – those we love and care about.

A pair of docs!

The paradox of modern society is that we have been provided so many things intended to make the quality our lives better.  Computers do a lot of work previously done by hand, cell phones allow us to talk from practically anywhere, and texting messages can keep us in instantaneous contact with short bursts of information.   In an unfortunate way, these labor saving devices have allowed us to better communicate information, but do not provide the kind of spiritual exchange we get from that profoundly subtle and sometimes not so subtle gesture of physical/spiritual human contact.

Sometimes less is more; being physically present with others is much more helpful than a call or text.  In spite of this kind of communication being fairly recent, it is instructive to note that even the ancients appreciated the importance of the bond of the universal human family.

Consider often the connection of all things in the Cosmos and their relationship with each other.  For in a way all things are actually intertwined, and thus according to this there is a natural inclination, or love that links everything together… - Aurelius M Meditations

For all the ways we communicate, without being present with one another, there is nothing like touch to engage our senses when we are together.  It is our nature to work together.  Withholding sensory communication from one another is against the nature we have been given.

Remember the touch…it’s the little things – they are huge!

- ted