Today we encounter the promise God made nearly 3,000 years ago to a faithless Israel: a promise of steadfast love, mercy, and loving counsel. More than 2,000 years ago, Jesus fulfilled that promise in healing the bleeding woman and the ruler’s daughter: an outcast and a Gentile. What mattered was that they came to him, regardless of how life had wounded them. Today, amid the chaos and dysfunction of our world, these words can seem like echoes from a distant past. In 2007, when I was broken and holding a newborn not expected to live beyond a fortnight, those promises became real to me. I needed a miracle while feeling unworthy of one. Inspired by the bleeding woman, I reached out to Jesus in desperation. I had no earthly solutions, only a sliver of hope. In the nineteen years since, through the wilderness of crisis and the challenges of raising a child the world said would not live, I have known his love and peace. My faith may falter, yet he remains faithful.

PRAYER: Abba Father, may I encounter Jesus in every whispered prayer. Amen.