“DAUGHTER”          Submitted by: Merilee Ottoson

“And He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your affliction’.” Mark 5:34

I have decided that one of the most precious miracles recorded in the New Testament is recorded in Mark 5:25-34. We are told that a woman who had hemorrhaged for twelve years, suffered much at the hands of doctors, spent EVERYTHING and whose condition was worse…heard about Jesus and decided that she should approach Him. History tells us that she was considered “unclean” because of her condition and was forced to live outside the city.

No one could go near her, or they, too, would be considered unclean. She was abandoned….yet, she felt as though Jesus was her hope. Hearing that He had helped others, she made her way through the crowd…slipping here and there in between people who knew her……people who would try to shame her and make her stay away. But she persevered…..she reached out and touched the hem of his garment. HEALED!!

She knew it….He knew it…..yet, He asked who had touched Him. Who would know that answer? In a crowd of dozens…jostling…pushing to be near Him…..who knew? That was Jesus’ way to call her out…..to allow her to be seen. To shame her? Rebuke her? Scold her??? Rather to reveal His heart for one who is unclean and considered unworthy.  What happened next brings my tears….. His first word to her is “daughter”. How intimate is that? Daughter…..No where else in Scripture does Jesus speak that word to anyone. That is the Savior’s heart speaking to the abandoned, unloved, unworthy, uncared for soul.

From that moment, her life was NEVER the same…..never.

From unclean to clean…

From shamed to accepted…

From unknown to known…….known to Him as… “daughter”.