"Don't Touch It"

“Pain has the unique power to turn us to our Creator.”

At one time or another, we all experience pain. My most traumatic injury happened when I was about 7. I was climbing a tree when the branch broke. When I hit the ground, my arm collided with a stump, breaking two bones. I knew something was terribly wrong. But when my friend reached out to help, I yelled, “Don’t touch it.” When I got home, my mom rushed to help. Again, I yelled, “Mom! Don’t touch it!” She hurried me to the doctor, where I repeated, “Doctor, please don’t touch it.”

When we experience pain, whether physical, emotional, or spiritual, we don’t want anyone to touch it. It hurts too much. In the book of Job, we read about a man who has endured unimaginable injury. In rapid-fire succession, Job suffers the loss of his family, his belongings, and his health. When Job’s friends respond, their words don’t help, they hurt. Ultimately, Job turns to the only One who can help: God Himself.

God is seldom the author of our pain, but God is consistently the redeemer of our pain. Just as I had to allow the doctor to touch and set my broken limb, Job needed God to speak into and redeem his suffering. In Psalm 30, we learn one of the names for God: Jehovah Rapha. The word “Jehovah” refers to God. “Rapha” means to heal and restore. God’s healing power extends not only to our physical illness (Ps. 41:3) but also to our mental, spiritual, and emotional pain (Jonah 2:5–7; Ps. 23:3; Ps. 147:3). While God has the power to heal, we also know He might not choose to take away our physical suffering. We see that demonstrated in the life of Paul (2 Cor. 12:7–10) and even Jesus (Luke 22:42–43).

Our suffering is not without purpose. And while in our human existence we suffer the effects of a sinful world, ultimately, all believers will experience the gift of a new body, “imperishable” (1 Cor. 15:42–44). Like Job, we can trust God, even with our deepest hurts. Pain has the unique power to turn us to our Creator. Charles H. Spurgeon said, “I am certain that I never did grow in grace one-half so much as I have upon the bed of pain.” May God use the hurts we experience now to change us, empower us, and mold us into His image.