Orange Moon Monday, February 10, 2025 “One By One By One By One”

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe

"One By One By One By One"

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    A virus currently afflicts one of the nursing facilities where we conduct services (not Covid, but one of the traditional cold and flu variety).  This resulted in "a congregation of one" during the first part of our meeting yesterday until another resident later joined us.  Similar things have occurred through the years, but this was the first service where it seemed that we would be thronged with a single attendee.

    "And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, and had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, when she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched His garment. For she said, If I may touch but His clothes, I shall be whole. And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that virtue had gone out of Him, turned Him about in the press, and said, Who touched My clothes?  And His disciples said unto Him, Thou seest the multitude thronging Thee, and sayest Thou, Who touched Me?" (Mark 5:25-31).

   I do not believe the Lord Jesus Christ ever saw a crowd during His earthly lifetime.  Nor does He look upon a planet now populated by more than 8 billion people in terms of the masses.  Our Savior rather sees humanity one by one by one by one.  God's infinite heart and mind enables such a pointed focus upon us (Psalm 147:5).  This includes you and me, a truth we know to be true in doctrine and principle, but upon which we do well to regularly still ourselves to ponder.  Moreover, we want to be sure that we are ourselves the answer to His question, "Who touched Me?"

    The woman keenly recognized her need for the Lord's attention and application of grace.  More importantly, she realized and believed He could do something about her dilemma.  So, she touched Him.  With her hand.  But far more, with her heart.  As always, power went forth from the Lord Jesus, the power to heal a body, but far more, the power to imprint His grace upon a single heart.  Indeed, Scripture does not record the woman's life subsequent to her encounter with the Lord Jesus.  However, we can surely imagine she touched Him countless more times with her heart, and He touched her countless more times with His grace.

     We are all that woman.  Or we can be.  We must be.  Life in this fallen world plagues us all in countless ways.  Longstanding issues require our Lord's touch.  Some may be meant to linger, as with the Apostle Paul's thorn in the flesh (II Corinthians 12:7-9).  Others, however, may involve matters our Lord purposes to resolve - if we will touch Him.  That is, if we will realize how near He has drawn, how personally we matter to Him, how willing and able He is to administer His grace, and how we must trust Him with all our hearts.  None of us are merely part of the crowd to God.  We are rather members of the one by one by one by one.   

    I thought of this yesterday when looking out upon our congregation of one (and later 2).  I realized that in the most personal sense, God never sees a larger gathering.  The Lord Jesus could not have stated the truth more plainly to His disciples, and to the 8 billion He presently sees one by one by one by one, which includes you and me…

"The very hairs of your head are all numbered."

(Matthew 10:30)

Weekly Memory Verse

   Great is our Lord, and of great power, His understanding is infinite.

(Psalm 147:5)

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