Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet.
Luke 8:47
Some stories in the gospels are written with great detail. For example, the story of the bleeding woman: why, out of all the healings Jesus did, are we given such a complete picture of her? If the gospels give her special attention, so should we.
As we look at stories of Jesus interacting with individuals, we often find the unexpected. When His dear friend Lazarus was dying, Jesus didn't rush to help, in fact He tarried. When a Gentile woman asked Jesus to heal her daughter, Jesus compared them to dogs asking for the children's food. In today's story, when a woman with an intensely personal (and in that culture shameful) bleeding problem forced her way through a crowd to surreptitiously touch Jesus' cloak, He didn't respect her desire for privacy. He called her out and questioned her publicly. What was going on?
In this series "Prayers and Promises," we are all hoping to learn how to pray better. Is there a right way to pray? What kind of prayer is effective? But the more appropriate question to hold in our minds are we read about Jesus is, "What does He like?" The gospel stories show us that He likes honesty. He likes being personally involved and having relationships with people. Even though the bleeding woman was healed at the moment she touched Jesus' cloak, He still wanted to speak with her. He likes it best when we learn that He cares for us.
