And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, "Woman, you are set free from your ailment." When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.


I thought I was doing okay, and then I heard her voice, and realized that I wasn't. She knew something about me that I had not yet fully articulated, which was that I was really upset by the conflict and afraid to preach the next day. She knew me and spoke to me in a way that touched me profoundly. I showed up at the wedding the next day still feeling trepidation, but with a knowledge that, at the very least, I could make it through the words of my sermon I had written on the page. What came in the moment, though, was a surprise. It was a much stronger sense that I belonged and that I could claim the space of the preacher. What an incredible gift. The phone call helped to prepare me in a way that I could not have done for myself. The phone call came seventeen years ago, and on that day and this, I shed tears of gratitude for having been known and seen by another during a time of need.

...When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, "Woman, you are set free from your ailment." When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.

Can you remember a time when you were truly seen by another? Or perhaps you responded to a need that you saw in someone else? 

I believe that God can come to us through the hands and hearts of those around us, and in turn, that God can work through us to care for others, touching them in ways that we cannot fully know or understand. Whether we're on the receiving or giving end of this equation, our response, like the woman who was healed, may be to give thanks and praise God for the work of the Spirit among us.