I like to think that God often speaks to me in the voice of Sarah Bessey, and this week has been no different.
This blessing is inspired by the story of the bleeding woman who seeks out Jesus in desperation, having spent all she has in search of a cure. I imagine her wrestling with herself as she pushes her way through the crowds. Perhaps she feels in those moments all the pain of past rejection, and fears that He, too, might reject her. Perhaps she scarcely dares to hope anymore, after all the years of suffering – but she reaches anyway, in case touching Him might be the thing that finally heals her.
Something shifts the moment she touches His robe, we read, and she is healed. But I wonder if perhaps the greater miracle was in the discovery that she is seen, and loved, and worthy, and blessed – right there in her uncleanness, her poverty, her fear and doubt and fragile hope.
May we keep reaching, all who are tired or alone or desperate or suspicious of hope.
May we find ourselves seen, and loved, and worthy, and blessed.
(Sara)
A Benediction for the Ones Who Keep Reaching
“The hem of God’s robe isn’t reserved for the perfect or
the relentlessly positive or those without sin or sorrow.
It’s for the broke and the breaking ones …
May you know your own name,
not just the one the world gave to you,
or the one they pasted onto your face like a mask,
or laid upon your back as a burden …
No, may you know that your true name is known,
known by the God who whispered that name
into the hush before the world began,
the name that is etched in your soul,
the name Love gave to you when She reached for you.
You are beloved child,
and the one who belongs,
(the one who always did belong)
and the one who is treasured,
and the one who is known
by the One who knows the stars and soil.
May the name that Jesus sings over you
become your own heart’s song.
May it restore you to your people,
and lift the weight of loneliness,
and be the front porch light calling you home.
Jesus is at home with your lonely places;
He never flinches from your desperation,
He is not scandalized by you;
He is not afraid of you;
He stops for the ones no one else sees,
and the ones who only want to keep hiding, too.
Previous
Helen 25/07/25