Hugs And Kisses

Today we hear Jesus say, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind…You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  How often have we heard this command?   Quite often and perhaps so much so that it has lost some of its meaning or emphasis.

It's a bit difficult to comply with what Jesus wants of us because there’s no touching involved.  We cannot physically touch God, and we certainly better not touch our neighbors except for those friendly hand-shakes, pats on the back, and high-five’s. 

Touching is so very important.   Consider a recent article in the magazine “Scientific American Mind” entitled The Social Power of Touch: A long-overlooked system of nerves that respond to gentle strokes may be crucial to our ability to form connections with one another.  The cover-title is: Wired for Touch: New discoveries about the sense that binds us to others.

The article ends with “...a light touch between intimates, as akin to those early caresses I shared with my babies, remains one of the purest signals of mutual comfort and affection.  In a society that so often substitutes virtual communication for personal contact, the findings on affective touch remind us to relish every embrace and hold hugs even a few seconds longer.  Those moments may be the bedrock of our richest relationships.” 

Perhaps the best way to “touch and be touched” by God is to give hugs and kisses to the ones we love and to extend a helping hand (and embrace) to those in need of friendship.  

Deacon David Pierce