You gotta have faith. . .

"And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ” But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it.Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”  - Mark 5:25-34

Faith, something I think about often and yet this story is not one that immediately jumps to memory when I do. As God drew me to this story, repeatedly. . . and in all three gospels, I really began to look at and think about it and began to wonder why it doesn't come to mind more often? This is a story about a woman who had faith to do unconventional, courageous and extreme things. Sure to us, pushing through a crowd to touch Christ's cloak may not sound that outrageous. . . but in the context of her time, it was huge! In Leviticus if anyone touched a woman in her "condition" they were deemed unclean, and here she is fighting to touch Christ. She knew, her faith wasn't a huge leap, hoping that maybe He could help, maybe He could lighten the load. Her faith was knowing that He would completely heal, completely comfort and completely love her, in spite of everything else. As I compare this story to my own, my fear of the future, my confusion of the next step. . . I realize, my faith is in Him, and that faith is a knowledge that He is guiding my steps, He is in every detail and He is my rock, my redeemer, my comfort, my King. . . . He is my God.