A Prayer about Holy Touch

“Greet one another with a holy kiss. Romans 16:16

Loving Father,

After being asked for a hug 

by an elderly woman outside a senior center recently,*

I am more aware than ever of the “famine of touch” 

many in our world experience. 

Those of us who are married or who have children 

may not give much thought 

to how single and elderly people 

may long for appropriate touch.

Pastor Sam Allberry tells us, 

“Churches should provide a remedy [to the famine of touch] 

by being a place where healthy and appropriate touch is encouraged.”** 

Lord, may we become specialists at “gospel touch,”

which Pastor Zack Eswine describes as 

“meant to resemble the touch normatively appropriate 

between family members….” 

Because many of us have been harmed by abusive touch, 

may we remember and guard against 

“abusive, neglectful, presumptuous, or sensual touch 

[which] has no place in the tender touch of gospel life and ministry.”*** 

Help us, Lord, to recover 

a view of the body 

and of holy touch 

that accords with your view.

In the name of Jesus who became flesh for us.

Amen. 

Read John 1:14; 2 John 12; Psalm 139:13-14. 

*To read the whole story about this hug, go to https://elizabethturnagenumberingdays.substack.com/ and look for the column “Story Feast.”

**To think more about how God made our bodies for touch, see Sam Allberry’s excellent book, What God Has to Say about Our Bodies.

***Quoted in Allberry, 192.