Central West Virginia's Guide To Life

THINGS NEW AND OLD
By Chris Hasse'

9/07 - Touching A Life

Nowadays, it's not the end of the world if you're infertile. High tech clinics can engineer the whole baby-making process. Or you adopt a Chinese girl baby. Some opt for a career instead.

But anciently, and by that I mean anywhere before the 19th century, having babies is all women were supposed to do.

So it was painful and awkward to be "barren." But the Shunammite woman's husband was tolerant and loving, and they managed to go beyond themselves in helping others. Thus they had been in the habit of regularly feeding prophet Elisha whenever he came by. These encounters had happened so often, with the weary man of God finding family fulfillment with them, that the woman suddenly had a bright idea.

"Let's build a little room at the top of the house, " she suggested to her husband. "Then when the prophet passes by, he can have his own little space while he's here with us. It's the least we can do." And the husband agreed. (It reminds me of certain Calhoun residents, who are great for hospitality).

A bed, a table and stool and a candlestick! (Today, we'd give him a laptop and a futon couch!) The prophet was thankful and wanted to acknowledge the woman's kindness. He asked what could be done for her. She said, "It's okay. I'm here with my people. I really don't need anything." But the prophet, with that discernment born from communion with God, promises her a son.

Sure enough, along comes that miracle baby boy, one of 7 in The Bible, all of whose mothers couldn't have babies. The child goes through the usual round of potty-training, childish prattle, crawling.

And then we're told that when he was "grown," he was out working one day in the fields with his father, who suddenly heard the cry, "My head, my head!" A stroke, a seizure, a tumor, a hemorrhage?

We don't know, but by the time the man had carried his son back to the house, he had only a limp, quickly cooling corpse to lie in the stricken mother's arms. She saddled the ass and flew over the terrain that separated her from the prophet. And she would not return home without him.

Elisha took the child and brought him up to his room, that special little space he had because of the woman's kindness. "He went in therefore, and shut the door upon them twain, and prayed unto the Lord. And he went up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands; and he stretched himself upon the child; and the flesh of the child waxed warm. Then he returned, and walked in the house to and fro; and went up, and stretched himself upon him: and the child sneezed seven times and the child opened his eyes." 2 King 4:8-37.

We want to quickly differentiate here between what the prophet did, and what today is known as molestation. There's a way of touching that is right and holy. We must find out what that way of touching is, because it is what "saves" us and our children. If someone had been able to touch the Virginia Tech killer, and had somehow warmed him to life, would we have had that massacre?

Using our mouths, (kind, encouraging words), our eyes (pointing out to others, perhaps younger than ourselves, perhaps older, the "path to life"), our hands, (deeds of kindness, acts of self sacrifice), we have to touch the lives of others. It's the gospel. It's what Christ did. It brings healing.

Touch a life today. It's no careless gesture. It costs, and the price is self. "Except a corn of corn of wheat fall in the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." John 12:24.

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