She Touched, He Turned: What Happens When God Sees You

 

Luke 8:43–48 – A Devotional on Relentless Initiation and the God Who Finally Turns Toward You

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There are some of us who know what it means to be the one who always reaches first.

We are the ones who initiate the hard conversations.
The ones who remember birthdays and send the check-in texts.
The ones who press through relational silence like a woman pressing through a crowd—hoping someone, anyone, might turn around and see us.

We don’t wait for doors to open. We knock. We push. We bleed.

This was the woman in Luke 8. Bleeding for twelve years, spending all she had on physicians, and still deteriorating—unseen, untouched, unhealed.

Her pain had become a private wilderness.
Her condition, a quiet exile.
Twelve years of blood. Twelve years of being ceremonially unclean.
Twelve years of people stepping away—while she still moved toward.

And on that day? She wasn’t even supposed to be in the crowd. Let alone reaching out.
But something in her refused to stay invisible.

“If I only touch the hem of His garment, I will be healed.” (Luke 8:44)

She didn’t need a conversation. She didn’t ask for eye contact.
She didn’t even expect Him to notice.

She just reached.

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💔 When You’re Always the Initiator

If you’ve ever felt like the one who always reaches but rarely gets reached for, this story is for you.

You know what it feels like to crawl through life, emotionally hemorrhaging, hoping for some response.

To show up with your wounds at the edge of someone else’s celebration, only to be met with silence.

To extend grace again and again—through forgotten birthdays, one-sided friendships—while your own need for tenderness goes unmet.

You’ve pressed through disappointment.
You’ve reached through grief.
You’ve extended yourself again and again, hoping this time someone might turn around.

And when they don’t?
You learn to touch hems instead of hands.
You learn to find healing in hope alone.

But here’s the turning point in Luke 8:

“Who touched me?” Jesus asked.
“Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.” (Luke 8:45–46)

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🌿 The Turning Toward

She reached without expectation—but He noticed.
She touched in desperation—but He turned.

In a sea of people, Jesus felt her faith like a pulse.
He didn’t just let the healing happen in silence—He called her forward.

“Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.” (Luke 8:48)

He named her Daughter—not patient, not stranger, not problem.

Daughter.
Belonging.

That’s what Jesus does for those of us who are used to reaching without being reached for:
He turns.
He sees.
He speaks peace into places we’ve only known depletion.

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🙏 Final Reflection

Maybe you’ve been the one who initiates for so long that you’ve forgotten what it’s like to be pursued.

Maybe your reaching has started to feel like begging.

But take heart: Jesus doesn’t just respond to the loud, the celebrated, the obviously needy.

He feels the faith that comes in the smallest touch.
He sees the effort it takes to keep pressing through.
And in time, He turns toward you.

Not just to heal your bleeding.
But to name your worth.
To return your gaze.
To remind you that you are more than what others didn’t offer.

You are not invisible.
You are not forgotten.
You are not always going to be the one who has to reach first.

Sometimes—finally—God reaches back.

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📖 Companion Scripture 

“The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
in His love He will no longer rebuke you,
but will rejoice over you with singing.”
— Zephaniah 3:17