God’s Touch
When you’re in rehabilitation, what is the one thing you really need?
Well, hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada and on this National Rehabilitation Week, I can tell you, I know rehab. Dealing with a disability? I mean, I’ve been through a lot of rehabilitation. And it ain’t easy. Maybe right now you are going through rehab after a hip operation, or you’re in cardiac rehab after a heart attack. You could be in rehab for a recent stroke, or you are rehabilitating from an addiction to pain meds, whatever. In it, there is one thing you really need. You need encouragement. Because when they push you hard in rehab, when they expect a lot – so much so that you feel like giving up – you need friends and family; you need people saying, “You can do this. You can make it.” You need words of congratulation for small successes. People who will stand by you and celebrate your goals by giving hugs or applauding you with a hearty pat on the back, saying, “You’re making it. You’re doing it. Good on you!”
I know after I broke my neck I sure appreciated encouragement, those words of affirmation, the pats on the back, the hugs when I was slugging it out in rehabilitation. You see, after I became paralyzed, I could not feel, feel anything below my shoulders. And most people, because of that, didn’t hug me or hold me because they didn’t want to hurt me and were afraid that I would break. It did not bother me at first, but after a while, I began to starve for human touch – for the pat on the back, for the hug. To be honest, I was starving for a touch; I was starving for a touch from God, wondering if He cared. Does He see how hard it is to regain something I’ve lost? Does He even notice that I’m doing my best to get better?
I needed a touch from … a literal touch. 1 Samuel chapter 10:26 perfectly describes that when it says this – now get this story: “Saul also went to his home at Gibeah, and with him went men of valor whose hearts God had touched.” John Piper makes much of this passage. He said, “Just think of what is being said in this verse. God touched them. Not a wife. Not a child. Not a parent. Not a counselor. But God. God touched them. The One with infinite authority and infinite wisdom and infinite love and infinite goodness and purity and infinite justice. That One touched their heart. Oh, my goodness, how does the circumference of Jupiter touch the edge of a molecule? Let alone penetrate to its nucleus? … The valiant men [of Saul] were not just spoken to. They were not just swayed by a divine influence. God, with infinite condescension, touched their heart. God was that close.”
You know what? God gave me that touch in rehab. While I was in physical therapy, trying to push myself down the hallway of the rehab unit, I was straining just to move my wheelchair a couple of inches, and I felt like giving up. But just then, Michael Coleman, my high school friend, came up the hallway for a visit. He saw me in my wheelchair, and he started cheering me on, “Joni, look, this is so cool. You’re pushing your wheelchair. You can do this. You can make it. Come on, let’s see you go another inch, come on.” It was all the encouragement I needed. And after I moved my wheelchair that final inch, Michael leaned over, gave me the biggest hug and pat on the back. And for me, it was a touch from God. How does the circumference of the planet Jupiter touch the edge of a molecule, let alone penetrate to its nucleus? Hey, look, this is National Rehabilitation Week, and if you know someone working hard in rehab to recover from a surgery or an injury, or maybe a stroke survivor, take a moment, would you? Encourage him. Give him a hug, a pat on the back. Give that friend the touch of God.
© Joni and Friends
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