The Power of Touch

I recently had an opportunity to re-read an article by David Brooks,

who is a conservative opinion columnist for the New York Times,

which he wrote some years ago about the power of touch.

He was originally quoting a study done in Germany

back in the 1940’s, involving a group of orphaned children.

They were between the ages of 0 and 2 years old.

They treated a group of children as they would normally treat them

in the healing process and then they took a smaller group of children

and they treated them as if they were their own;

they held them,they touched them,

cuddled them as you would a child instead of leaving them on the bed.

They found a 35% increase in healthy return and

they found a 37% decrease in mortality.

David Brooks concluded not only is touch good for us;

it is literally life-giving and necessary at this tender, young age.

David Brooks makes the argument

that touch is important for the entirety of life

not just in those first two years.

I think instinctively we know that right?

A baby child knows nothing but their mother or father

and if baby does not get that touch

one can see how it would affect them.

But it is powerful to see it written in a data report.

All of us over this last year since COVID,

when we have not been allowed to touch for so long,

we would have to agree readily with that finding

about the power of touch;

or in our case the power of not being touched,

how negative it can be.

David Brooks makes the distinction in this article,

that not all touch is the same, he says.

He says there are positive emotional touches

which are life-giving and transformative that literally give life.

There is also disenchanted, negative touch,

which we sometimes know how it feels especially if it is abusive.

We know that all touch is not the same.

An abusive touch, is not only negative at the moment,

but it can take years to recover from an abusive touch.

Ask any wife who is a battered wife;

they recoil at the slightest movement of a hand.

And it takes years to recover from.

The reason why I think this is particularly apt today

is because the gospel today is all about touch.

Touch is mentioned no less than 7 times in this short gospel.

There are layers to this and

it is important to go through them to understand

why the evangelist used the word.

Jesus touches the child;

if the child was dead then touching a dead body

would have been considered taboo;

he would have then been contaminated.

The woman with the hemorrhage

was considered unclean because she had blood.

And her touching Jesus would have meant that he was unclean.

Over and over again throughout scripture

Jesus uses touch as a way to heal;

as a way to overcome stigma;

to overcome disenchantment, hurt or abuse.

There are a couple of important parts to all this.

While the number 7 is an important number in scripture;

in Roman numerology 3 was the divine number;

4 was the earthly number

so 7 was a whole number.

It was considered all of heaven and earth.

Then 12 is 3 x 4, which is the whole number.

That is why the woman is 12 years with the blood

and the girl is 12 years old;

and of course, there are 12 tribes in Israel.

This is not meant to be lost on us.

This is all meant to emphasize again the power of touch.

I do not think any of us needs to be convinced of that in this last year.

We know how the lack of touch has negatively affected the elderly.

And how devastating it has been.

My own sister’s-in-law father is in his 90’s

and he had dementia on its way a year ago

but he is declining so much just in these last 18 months

because of the lack of touch.

I am sure you have your own stories of this happening.

Not too long ago, I held a Baptism here

and we had postponed the Baptism three times over this last year

because we could not gather together

as there were several members of the extended family

that have compromised health

and did not want to take the risk.

They insured that every single person

who was coming to the Baptism was double-vaccinated plus two weeks.

We waited until everybody could do that.

When we gathered, some 50, 60 people.

It was the first time that they had seen each other.

Now that everyone was vaccinated,

we removed our masks and they hugged one another.

Wow!! It was just like a celebration

and there were tears because of the power of touch.

You know it is important for us to return to touch now that we can.

But we have to be careful and mindful;

we need to make sure we are double vaccinated

and make sure that we are prudent.

If we are not feeling well then, we ought not to gather.

Obviously, we need to be smart about this

but if we are double vaccinated and

everybody ought to be getting double vaccinated;

and be out two weeks so that we can return to normal.

I know here in Los Altos, we are doing great.

We have 91% of our adult population already vaccinated

but that last 9%--we want you to get it too,

so that we can all go back to normal.

For the rest of the population around the country,

we are desperate to get you vaccinated

so that we can come back to regular touch

Just the shaking of a hand,

a gentle touch on the shoulder,

a hug when somebody has something happen.

When there is a loss of a loved one

a gentle touch on the shoulder is so powerful

it can mount a thousand words.

So it is important for us to return to normal now that we can;

now that we have the technology to do this.

The power of touch is real.

And we need it especially the elderly and especially the young.

The young children, teenagers even,

they need to be loved; they need to feel that power of love.

Indeed, all of us need it.

So I plead with all of us to get vaccinated

and to move back to our normal life.

And once we can, then we will know once again;

experience this power of touch and

especially those who are most in need:

The young; the elderly; and the sick.

The power of touch.