![keep bleeding keep keep bleeding love keep bleeding keep keep bleeding love](https://live.staticflickr.com/4045/4276086348_64aafab63a_b.jpg)
I took a job in a place where I knew no one because I needed a big girl job. No, I don’t have a medical condition that has me bleeding out, but I have felt the isolation that she’s felt deep in my core. I think the account of the hemorrhaging woman resonates with me personally for a variety of reasons, but primarily, I relate to how this woman feels on a deep level. Mark and insert a story within the story: This story will be my own (hello vulnerability – NOT a feeling I like to embrace on the regular). Mark sets up the scene, to be honest it feels pretty hopeless and like our friend, the woman, is going to take another L. Yet, this woman has not given up hope! Mustering up the will to act takes a lot of courage: Not only must she break custom by entering the crowded place where Jesus was (we’re told in Mark’s Gospel by one of the disciples that crowds of people are pressing upon them as they make their way to Jairus’s house), she also has to physically touch the Lord. Checked out, done, and probably not very nice to be around. What faith she has! I don’t know about you, but if I had been bleeding for years, separated from those I loved, and depleted of all of my resources from trying (but failing) to get help for my condition, I’d be all out of hope. Yet, even in this unimaginable desolation, the woman hears that Jesus is passing through her area and that if she “but touches the tassel of His cloak,” she’ll be made clean. Can you conceive of being isolated for 12 years? I can only imagine how much despair she must have felt! Even as an introverted person, if “my people” aren’t around me or at least in touch with me over the course of a few hours, I start feeling really sad and despondent! I liken the woman’s feelings to how we might feel getting left “on read” by a friend – but she was left on read for 12 years. In Jewish custom, this medical condition makes her ritually unclean which places her on the outskirts of society and forces her to be isolated from those she loves. In the middle of telling the story of how the Temple official’s young daughter is close to death, we are introduced to this woman who we’re told has been bleeding for 12 years. Mark’s retelling is my favorite for once, his account is actually the most descriptive! Her story is tucked in the middle of an account of the death of Jairus’s daughter, and we hear about it in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Over the last few weeks, I’ve been reminded of my favorite account from Scripture about Jesus healing the woman with the hemorrhages.
![keep bleeding keep keep bleeding love keep bleeding keep keep bleeding love](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/18/9c/15/189c15c12e702fa8e693aff77ca01db0.jpg)
Mary Catherine recently shared her Story with us - I invite you to share your Story as well! This week’s article is brought to you by Dr.