What if?

Karen started to dress after her afternoon bath. She applied the herbal ointment the doctor had given her last week. She didn’t see much difference in this ointment as compared to the others that were given earlier. Anyway she didn’t care anymore. She was tired. Anything which showed promise was better than nothing.

She winced as the smell of the herbal ointment came to her nostrils. She felt the trickle again. Not as if it never existed. This trickle was now a part of her for as long as she could remembered.  She couldn’t even remember the last time she had had a regular menstrual cycle. This is what she has known for the past twelve years of her life. She shuddered as she began to think of it.

Twelve years; she signed. She had lost all her childhood friends. That wasn’t the only thing she lost too. Her joy as well as confidence too. Her parents being poor had tried their best. But all to no avail.

She was shy at first to confide in her friend Mary. She couldn’t  really explain why she could no longer come to the temple to worship together. Until that fateful Friday when she bared her soul to Mary.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out what Mary would do next. But Karen began to see the effects later. Their friendship began to grow apart daily till now she does not know where Mary's new home was since she got married.

Marriage! Another thing that this defect drove away. Nobody wants my hand in marriage anymore.  Not since they heard the news of my condition. The stares and gossips in public squares have now become usual to me. It’s no longer unusual to meet dead silence or a complete change of topic when I meet a group of women.

As for the suitors from afar off, they need only to get to the edge of town to hear of it and they are off again. Perhaps this is my fate. I might as well accept it. She thought.

At least I make enough sales from the garments I make to feed myself and buy the medicine i need. She said to herself

Gathering her stuffs for the day’s business, she heard the gossips of the women in the nearby house. “These women would talk about everything else but themselves why?” She grumbled beneath her breath.

“Yes, Jesus would be coming to town today; he should be at the towns market by now." She heard one of the women say. "He is handsome and popular too. He will make a fine husband.” Another woman chipped in. “I just like the way he treats these holier than thou Pharisees but I don’t believe he is who he says he is either”

As Karen listened in on the gossip, something familiar began to stir within her. She quickly brushed it aside.

This man must be doing something greatly wrong or right to get this lot of attention from people. Some even say he raises the dead. She thought within herself on her way to the towns market. Some say he has a devil others say he is Elijah raised but what if this man can heal me and make everything better. She thought to herself.

This made her chuckle. She quickly brushed the thought aside. Why give room for more gossip to people who do not have anything else to do. Besides. It was against the law for a woman to approach a man publicly and ask anything.

Then she saw the crowd coming with a great commotion. She heard the man’s name being mentioned over and over again. "He must be in there somewhere." She thought.  She decided to slide by quickly unnoticed but then she suddenly felt numb at her spot.

Her curiosity was heightened and the questions were now springing into her mind in full force. “What if this….” Or “what if that………”

She thought to herself again “maybe I don’t even need to speak to him or ask him to pray for me. He is an embodiment of power and all around him shows that. Even his very clothes might contain power in themselves. Perhaps if I could even touch just the hem of his garment and be healed. He need not see me.

As if acting on impulse, she moved and pushed through the crowd. Some who knew her called her unclean, some felt disgusted by her. Others taunted but yet still she pressed till she got to the front exactly where Jesus was. Someone pushed her; she didn’t know who it was and she didn’t care. Her modesty wasn’t at stake here. She was tired, she had come too far to give up so she stretched her hands in a last effort and took hold of his garment.

Instantly she felt that trickle cease as if it never was. 

"No! this definitely is not one of the magic scams i know. But i cant feel it anymore. Joy started bubbling within her but then she needed to control it.  She couldn't afford the emotional disappointments anymore. "No i need to check this up."

 She wasn’t sure so she left the crowd to check it up.

Meanwhile the crowd that was moving had stopped and people were asking each other question. From a distance she heard the man called peter ask Jesus, "Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you so why do you say who touched me."

Happy from her healing but ashamed as she was about to be revealed publicly, she came forward to him trembling. Falling at his feet she confessed. Guess what Jesus said to her Luke 8:48. "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace." He didn’t rebuke her but commended her faith.

She didn’t need anything much to impress the master. All she needed was the faith to get her healing and get the man’s attention. In (Luke 8:43-48)