A Healing Touch… | Discipleship Playbook

Jesus said: “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me.” ~ John 6:56-57

We heard about Jesus’ touch in the last posting via the song “He Touched Me” (HERE). We have the opportunity to extend this same touch to those around us, many of whom we don’t know by name. We need not look far…

Dementia is affecting an ever-growing swath of society. Those experiencing dementia can miss community touch; many of us simply don’t know what to do or say. We may tend to make less contact as a result.

The life of Tony Bennett, including his dementia, is chronicled in the 2021 AARP article (HERE.) It’s filled with wonderful family/friends perspectives, links to helpful webpages and this commentary about the stigma:

Like cancer and mental illness, Alzheimer’s carries a stigma, since people feel a special terror of an incurable disease that ruthlessly detaches its sufferers from the places, events and people that anchored them in life. Many treat it as an immediate death sentence and retreat from the world, encouraged to do so by family members who fear the disease and its unpredictable, and sometimes socially embarrassing, course.

Jesus says to love one another, no exceptions. In upcoming CP posts we’ll explore some aspects of connecting with those experiencing dementia. We can spread Jesus’ touch in many ways, sharing the joy, love and caring of Christ with our family, friends and neighbors who are experiencing dementia.

PRAYER: Dear God, prepare us to be “the touch of Jesus” in other’s lives today just as those in New Testament stories felt it. May your touch and presence find us “just where we are,” that we might extend those same characteristics and efforts to those we are naturally with, and those we seek out! Amen.

Enjoy the day, filled with the Spirit…