From One Bleeding Woman To Another

A while back i read and heard the story of the bleeding woman (as found in Mark 5:21-34) a couple of times. i don’t think it was by accident that i came across this Scripture multiple times. i guess there was something i needed to hear in this story :) And indeed, i learned some things reading this Scripture. No, i’m not writing this to imply that i know it all. That i have this Scripture all figured out. i have not. And that’s part of the reason that i waited to write and post this. i wanted to wait a bit and then read Mark 5 again, see if there’s something new that comes up yet again. Let’s see.

First of all, this woman’s been sick for 12 years. People back then did not get as old as they do now. So 12 years of this woman’s life has been a long period of time.

Also, this woman was not just struggling because she was ill. Because of her illness she was perceived as unclean and therefore had to live on the outside of the social circle. She was not allowed to go to church, for she would defile the home of God. There was this whole list of prescriptions she had to live up to, here are a couple prescriptions, as stated in Leviticus 15:19-30:

- “ When a woman has a discharge of blood, and blood flows from her body, the uncleanness of her monthly periods shall last for seven days.”

- “Anyone who touches her will be unclean until evening.”

- “ Any bed she lies on in this state will be unclean; any seat she sits on will be unclean. Anyone who touches her bed must wash his clothing and wash himself and will be unclean until evening. If there is anything on the bed or on the chair on which she sat, anyone who touches it will be unclean until evening.”

- “The children of Israel are to be warned lest they (the bleeding women) defile the tabernacle that is set among them.”

(retrieved from: http://www.womenpriests.org/traditio/unclean.asp)

So people would most likely have left her alone, for they would not want to become unclean themselves. i am sure this woman must have found herself to be very lonely and desperate. And she felt broken. Verse 28 says that she thought by herself if only she would touch but Jesus clothes she would be whole. This indicates that she felt broken in a deep and desperate and lonely way.

 

She had tried everything she could think of. She had spent all that she had but nothing bettered. Yet she did not lay herself down somewhere and refused to get up. No, it was the opposite. Where she encountered Jesus she must have been up and running. Doing the best she could to make her day a good day. Maybe somewhere in her heart she’d have the hope that a day like this would come. A day she would finally be able to enter healing and freedom.

http://www.rageineden.co.uk/html/bleeding_heart_by_zindy.html

When i read this Scripture the first thing that really hit me was how the Dutch New Bible Translation (NBV) spoke about the woman’s condition getting worse because of the treatment of all the physicians she had visited. She first gave all her money to them, only for her illness to get worse. To be honest, i can relate. Physicians, therapists, they are just like ordinary people.. they do make mistakes, or they are limited in their sources to get us better. They fall short, they accidentally and willingly hurt us. And i can only say that i think it is remarkable of this bleeding woman that she reaches out again. Literally. Yet to another man. She may have lost her hope and faith a couple of times, or even more than a couple of times. When the time was there, when Jesus was there, she did not lose hope, she had faith, big enough to move a mountain and she acted upon her faith. Even though she was not allowed to touch anyone. For anyone who touched her would become unclean as well. She knew it had to be different with Jesus. It doesn’t say how she knew. But she knew. Otherwise she most likely would not have taken this gigantic step of faith!

Another thing that spoke to me was the word Daughter: And He said unto her “Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague”. (Mark 5 verse 34, King James Version).

Jesus calls this bleeding woman daughter. This is the one and only time in God’s Word that a woman is being called daughter by Jesus. Where other people would leave this woman alone, saw her as unclean, where she was tired, exhausted, ill, and out of money – Jesus listens to her story and He gives her a name. He gave her an identity. From that moment on she was no longer alone, but she had someone to call family. Someone she knew cared enough for her and about her to call her His daughter. Jesus did not only gave this bleeding woman healing, but He also gave her a place to call home. People to call home.

What does this tell me? That Jesus not only has a say in my circumstances. Yes, He has the power to heal me, He has the power to free me, He has the power to turn things around. But there is more, there is so much more. Jesus also wants to have a say in my (our) identity. He wants to tell me, who i am. He wants to tell you who you are.

In the end our identity in Christ is way more important to Him than whether or not we are healthy, happy, and healed.

Another thing that got me thinking was the resemblance between the story of the bleeding woman and the daughter of Jairus. The daughter of Jairus was 12 years old, and the bleeding woman suffered for 12 years. Both were living on the brink of life and death. And both were granted a new chance to live their life to the fullest. To live and glorify the name of the Lord.

Are you a bleeding woman today?

Have you been bleeding for a long period of time and are you doubting things will ever change?

Maybe you find comfort in this story? i sure do hope and pray so.  

Not long after i read Mark 5, i also read Ezekiel 16 and verse 6 stood out to me. "And when I passed by you and saw you rolling about in your blood, I said to you in your blood, Live! Yes, I said to you still in your natal blood, Live!"

The Lord our God does not want us to be living our life rolling about in our blood. He has something much better and bigger in store for us (Jeremiah 29:11). So allow that to be of encouragement when you are knocked down and feel the weight of the world press down on your shoulders. You are Loved. And the Lord sees you bleeding and rolling in your blood. He sees it all. He knows it all. And He is waiting for you to reach out, just to touch His garment. 

http://hookedonthebook.com/jesus-heals-a-bleeding-woman-all-the-bible-miracles-for-kids/

Bears on the road

In Dutch we have this saying “to see bears on the road” (translated freely from "alleen maar beren op de weg zien") which means something like “to make a mountain out of the mole hill” or “to think only about all the possible negative outcomes.

Last Thursday i walked by a stranger on the street who was not in a good place. i can’t explain why, i mean: so many people are hurting these days and yet i’m not walking up to all of them asking them if they were alright. But last Thursday as i saw this man standing on the roadside, frozen in time and place it seemed, i could not leave him there. It was a dangerous spot with cars passing by. Drivers looked at him confused about his intentions. And i just knew right away this man wasn’t in a good place. For the first 5-10 minutes he didn’t say a word. i know, it would have been oh-so-normal to just walk away and leave him be. i mean it was raining, i just came from my work and was tired. Yet i knew it’d be a mistake to just go home.

To be honest everything in me longed for my hot water bottle and a cup of tea. So please remember that and know that there was nothing good about me, as i stood there alongside this stranger on the roadside. Talking, trying to convince the man to walk to a bench in stead of standing there. i stood there listening to his difficulty breathing. i stood there recognizing his distant look in the eyes, his lack of affect in his mimic.

i’m not gonna write about all we talked about. Well, he talked and i tried to listen as best i could, i prayed silently asking the Lord for wisdom. i knew this situation was beyond my ability to listen, my ability to think of possibilities. i tried to point out some resources this man could reach out to for help and eventually helped him get to the urgent care. He definitely needed medical attention, someone to review his state of mind and someone to take him by the hand as he had to reach out for more long-term help for long-term solutions.

What was intriguing about this man was is ability to joke around even though he was in such a bad place. And when he talked about all those “bears he saw on his path” he told me he had to find a way to colour some pink bears along the other, scary, big ones.

That stuck by me. How could someone hurting so badly joke around. And not just joke around, i guess this is a good visual on how to deal with our fears and problems. If you know me just a bit, you’d probably know that i’m not living on a cloud where it’s all rosy – i too have seen my share of raindrops and thorns. Yet this man encouraged me. By talking about those pink bears on the road ahead. And i thought i’d share. Maybe someone else will find this encouraging, too. If not, well at least i explained my sudden interest for pink bears  xD

Do you see any bears big or small, on the road ahead?

How do you deal with them?

What pink bears can you colour on your road?

i hope and pray through me the Lord showed this man something of His amazing Love. i know this man showed me His Mighty Power!

Surprises

As i walked out the door this morning i walked right into the first light of the morning sun coloring the sky. i was surprised. i expected it to be a bit darker outside and even though the autumn cold is setting in, the colors of this perfectly clear sky would have woken me up perfectly (if it were not that i had been awake for over 3 hours already so the sleepy head in me, already had gone to bed).

This afternoon, a dog owner that i regularly encounter in my neighborhood was in a good mood! His mood is most likely to be way up, or way down. So it’s always a surprise when i pass him by. Today he had this radiant smile on his face and loudly replied with a “you too!” when i wished him a great afternoon. He surprises me with his spirit so full of live. And it warms my heart when i see him take care of his cute little dog.

Surprised again! When my neighbor’s boy ringed my doorbell this afternoon. i knew someone would come pick up a child’s shoe that accidentally landed on my balcony yesterday. i got a little note on my mailbox about it. So i got on my balcony to get the shoe this morning and wrote them a little card to let them know i’d be home for them to pick it up, later this afternoon.

So yeah, this afternoon.. my doorbell rang. And had me soo surprised!

To be honest, i expected a mom to come pick up the shoe. This kid’s nervous rambling explaining what he rang my doorbell for, it was so sweet. Truly. i was amazed that this kid was picking it up himself. (And i’m so curious how his shoe landed on my balcony. i mean.. what kind of game makes you throw out your own shoe out the window? xD But well, it was exactly what i needed today, so yeah, i can only praise the Lord for this lovely situation. He knows exactly what we need and when we need it ;)

As i opened the door for my neighbor's boy, his father stood behind him, just a little further. Supporting him (which i think is amazing of him!) while letting him take responsibility, too. Because of his dad i did not ask about the whole situation, so i can continue to think of all kinds of crazy situation that leaves you throwing out your shoe :p (Anyone have any brilliant ideas?)

The dad was very nice too. Thanking me and all (when really it was no big deal :p). i thanked his son, because i think it is very praise-worthy of him to go pick up his shoe himself. His dad then mentioned that he figured i was a primary school teacher (which is a big compliment to me) probably because i wrote them that card (it was a handcraft/kids-theme card i had still had not found an occasion for until this morning xD) and/or because of my comment to his son, idk.

This son and dad, they made me smile.

For they remind me that there are wonderful people in this world and i wanted to share this surprise with you: Let's celebrate the amazing people living in this chaotic world!

 

http://tv.mycfmhub.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/09/i-celebrate-you-week-1.jpg

 

Your Happy is my Happy

So, today i did something quite different. Although i was exhausted when i got home from work (an internship at a primary school, so you know.. kids – they are amazing, fantastic, my sunshine and my nourishing rain, but they can be pretty intense as well hehe), i decided to go for a little walk and enjoy some of the autumn sunshine and breeze at the riverside. Just to listen to some music, take some photos, write a little poetry scrabbles and those kind of things. i also did take some of the post cards i got last Saturday to use for my project (translated it's called: "Hugs in an Envelope" - it's about sending cards to someone -you don't know- but really can use some encouragement). i wanted to write some and randomly leave them somewhere to be found.

As i was walking home, a man passed me by. Not sure how to explain, but there was something about this man that told me he could use a kind word, a positive gesture. So i did what i normally don’t dare to do: i asked him “Sir?” and gave him one of my post cards. He looked at me as if i was an alien (finally someone who understands how alienate i am xD) and i walked on. As i looked back i saw him hurry to open up the envelop and smiled - wishing, praying that it would somehow encourage him a bit.

Occupied by my thoughts on 1001 topics , i did not notice the green traffic light. Well, i was in no hurry so i did not mind. Then i saw the same man come my way. As we both waited for the traffic light to turn to green again, he gave me his fantastic smile and thanked me. “There’s no need to thank me” i said. “Everything i wrote is heartfelt”. And his answer truly amazed me. He said “i know. i can see that”. i still puzzle. How did this man see, know that? i don’t know. i am just really thankful the Lord used me today to bless this man. And to experience how he blessed me.

For you see, this man’s happy, it was my happy.

Someone else’s happy, your happy, is my happy. 

It’s as close as i can get to experience the amazing feeling of happiness.

i forgot to say thank you to this man. i’m sorry that he’ll never know how he just made my day :)