Holding her hand, He said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means “Little girl, get up!”
Mark 5:41 NLT

I love that Jesus held her hand before he healed her. The little girl in Mark 5—the one who died while Jesus stopped to heal someone else—felt the Healer’s hand before she got her healing. 

Scripture says she was already dead so what did it matter?

Maybe Jesus wanted to aim tenderness at her parents—her dad especially, a religious leader whose theology was facing off with Divinity. That dad’s daughter, now dead, would have been unclean, yet the Savior had no hesitation in touching her.

Maybe Jesus touched her to show His best friends how to lead with love. One chapter later He would send them out to heal, too.

But I think maybe He just did it for the girl, who, when awakened from her death sleep, would experience what every 12-year-old girl needs: warmth, affection, and safe touch.

Maybe you need His touch, too. You long for healing and restoration. Your doctor said, “It’s cancer.” Or the love of your life actually doesn’t love you. Or a relationship that really matters to you feels fractured and beyond repair.

Does Jesus still heal? Of course He does. That’s actually much less tricky than the question that nicks a closer nerve. That question is “Do you trust His hand.”

Do you? Because when we need His healing and we’re not sure He’s going to give it, the trust game we talk can go south in a hurry.

But here’s the thing. Jesus is patient, utterly trustworthy, imminently powerful, and unbound by time. He’s not waiting for your broken pieces to be put back together, He sees your wholeness. He’s not waiting for your breakthrough from anger or apathy or addiction, He has already authored it. He’s not waiting for restoration, He has already either restored your body (or bank account or relationship) or He has restored you.

His word says in Jeremiah 29:11, “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”

And Psalm 139:5 says, “You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.”

Did you catch that?

He lays His hand upon us. A few verses later we’re told that even on the far side of the sea—the dangerous, outlying, turbulent fringes of our lives—even there His right hand will hold us fast. This is so significant because throughout scripture, God’s right hand is a symbol of His power and His protection. His right hand is where Jesus sits. It’s a place of victory and authority – and scripture specifies that it’s also the hand He’s using to hold us.

I bet that’s the hand He used to hold the girl in Mark 5. And it’s the hand that’s holding you, too. Holding you even when you feel like you’re out of options. Holding you when He brings your dead places back to life.

Listen, I know sometimes the healing doesn’t come—at least not the way we want it to or in a timeframe that feels the slightest bit okay. He may be stopping to help someone else first. He may be holding your hand for just a minute.

But the day is coming when He will tell you to get up. And He’ll be there holding your hand when you do.

Laurie Davies- ARISE Marketing Strategist and Content Creator