“They begged Him that they might only touch the hem of His garment. And as many as touched it were made perfectly well.”
– Matthew 14:36 (NKJV)
How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever?
How long will You hide Your face from me?
Have I not begged? Have I not stretched out my hand to grab hold of the hem of Your garment?
Yet “perfectly well” I do not know.
Has not the woman who released her daughter to You, begged for her safety as she entrusted a life to your care? Has she not grasped to the hem of your garment as she prayed for her child?
Yet, her child is dead. Lost to her for good, in what feeble humanity can only call an accident.
How long, O Lord? Will You forget us forever?
How long will You hide Your face from us?
Has not the fifty-year old man, with a wife and three young daughters, who tried everything to fight cancer; has he not begged and stretched our his hand to touch the hem and find life?
Yet, wellness is not to be found.
How long, O Lord? Will You forget us forever?
How long will You hide Your face from us?
Has not the one with a failing marriage, the battle trodden addict, the poor starving dead, the weak and oppressed suffering the abuses of power, war, and inequity, have they failed to beg enough, strive enough, hold enough, grasp enough for Your attention, Your touch, and Your word.
How long, O Lord? Will You forget us forever?
How long will You hide Your face from us?
In grasping for the hem, with you leave us hemmed in? In longing for the fringe, will you leave us on the fringe?
Now O Lord, turn you head and see those who reach for the hem of Your garment, Turn and see, give them Your full attention. Speak your words of life and of hope, “Take heart, your faith has made you well.”
How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever?
How long will You hide Your face from me?
I beg, I strive, with all who grasp to the hem of Your garment.
Groan ups 