Jesus Speaks to Women

Tonight, I feel a great need to hear the voice of my Savior.  I need His presence to be evident to me at this moment.  

I can't count myself as one who claims to have ever heard the audible voice of God.  I wish I could, but it just has never happened.  I do hear His voice, however...in Scripture, that is.  The Word of God comes to me out of the pages of the Bible.  And it never fails me.  

Tonight, as I feel anxious thoughts creeping up, contaminating my mind, I search for it once again.  This time, though, I am intent in locating instances in which Jesus speaks to women.  So, I begin at the Gospel according to Matthew, and it is in chapter 8 when I find the first interaction between Jesus and a woman in this account.  There aren't any actual words recorded in this passage, but it is a healing, and that intrigued me to no end:

When Jesus came into Peter’s house, he saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him. 

Matthew 8: 14-15

In this instance, nobody asks Jesus to exercise His powers to cure this woman.  He simply enters the house and sees her, lying in bed with a fever.  I imagine her to be a middle-age woman, perhaps not much older than myself.  She is probably feeling embarrassed because, rather than fussing about dinner to entertain the guests, people are fussing about her not being her usual self due to illness.  I can picture her totally in awe that Jesus looks at her.  Unable to move, she holds the gaze for it's impossible to look away.  She trembles as His hand makes contact with her skin.  And, instantly, she feels the healing touch covering her as she regains her strength.  What to do, then?  Well, what else?  Get up and start showing her thankfulness the best way she can:  serving Him Who Has Healed her.

Sigh...

Lord, what a wonderful scene!

The compassion of Jesus has no end.  At a time when women were at the same level as cattle, and older women were more likely disregarded as useless burdens, Jesus, the Lord of All that There Is, the Great I Am, not only notices her, but touches her and heals her even when she is not worth her own relatives asking for it.

He is the Lord Who Sees.  He sees us.  He knows us.  And He does not abandon us.  Even if the entire world forgets about us...Jesus remembers, because we are His masterpiece, carefully thought of, designed and knit together before the beginning of the world.    

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for seeing me.  My trust is in You.  You are the King of Who I am!