Psalm 119:73″Your hands made me and formed me; give me understanding to learn Your [God's] commands.”Don’t forget the value of the “human touch.”God’s hands formed us!Not only for the sake of reaching out to others but to recognize the need for human touch. From birth to death there is a need to be touched. Our society has backed away from this because of the stigma that comes. I remember a time when little girls and boys in preschool would hold hands an race off to the playground, or little boys arm in arm off to the play area to pretend they were pirates. There was also a time that mother and daughter could hold hands and walk in the mall, yet there is a stigma/judgment on all the above.When I was in college I made a trip to Israel and there was a different kind of embrace. The young men greeted each other with a hug and a kiss on each cheek. Yes, I found that custom peculiar but the more I saw it the more I was convinced they had a human touch and it was out of respect to one another. In come places around the world women still embrace and kiss each other on the lips. This is another human touch of respect.Cell phones, texts, computers/email/IM/tweets all allow us to stay in touch, yet we ignore the need for human touch. You know the horrific judgments nowadays upon young and old people who embrace or become close in friendship. The whispers begin, “oh they must be partners.” We have allowed or have watched the decline of people reaching out to other people. The purity of this concept is now distorted and thus something to pray about.There is an old saying, “if you need a hug, go hug a tree.” Perhaps some people have adopted this concept. On the other hand when there are catastrophic disasters people pour in and pour out their lives to help. Then there seems to be a time when human touch reappears!Do we wait till there is a catastrophic disaster or can we just day to day- reach out and spend a few moments with people and experience “the human touch.”So what is the balance? What do you think? God’s Spirit is in us who are Christians, thus we touch many people in Jesus name!Do you need “the human touch?” Is it important? From infants to death- I believe people are much healthier if they experience the human touch.
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