Redefined As a Daughter of God
I was bullied growing up.
From the first day at a new school until the day I left three years later, I was teased constantly. Everything about me was fair game: The way I talked, my anatomy and the size of my nose made me the brunt of classroom jokes by boys and girls alike. For a burgeoning, insecure preteen in a single-parent household, this laid the foundation for the perfect storm of self-doubt in my adolescence.
My mother did the best she could to encourage me, but the lies of my classmates were louder than her voice and only seemed to magnify the absence of the words I longed to hear my father say. I had no idea their words would stay with me well into adulthood.
Depending on what is said, who says it and when they say it, we can find ourselves believing a lie about who we are for a lifetime. One account in Scripture speaks of a woman who others labeled and defined by her condition: She was known as the woman with an issue of blood.
Her medical state became her identity. No longer was she seen as a human being with thoughts, emotions, and a need to be loved. This woman would have been ostracized and possibly judged and criticized. I imagine town gossips may have talked about her behind her back. She was isolated from others because hemorrhaging women — and anyone or anything they touched — were considered unclean. She likely experienced loneliness, fear and shame.
This woman endured her condition for 12 years. Mark 5:26 says she “suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse” (NIV). But in spite of her condition, she had enough faith to believe that if she could touch the hem of Jesus’ garment, she could be made well.
This woman had resilient hope, and it paid off. Immediately after she touched Jesus’ cloak, her bleeding stopped, and she was freed from her suffering. I’m struck by Jesus’ response at that moment. In Luke 8:45a, He asked, “Who touched me?” (NIV).
An omniscient Savior asked a question of finite people. It wasn’t because He was unsure whose hands grasped the edge of His outer garment. He knows everything. Jesus knew the exact moment the woman’s fingers touched His tunic and caused power to leave His body. I believe Jesus asked the question for the benefit of the labeled woman.
