AN ISSUE OF...................................

                                                                          

With the last ounce of my will, I pressed inexorably through the swelling mass, swam through the surf of resistance until I broke through the swirling currents and touched the silky smooth, woolly fuse. Suddenly, BAM……..EXPLOSION!!!.......

When I look into the mirror, I see the macabre grin of the skull in its most charming state; reaching it reaches out to me a pale ghoul with its repulsive beam. My face used to be flushed with cheeks that were ruddy rose petals, but now they are as ashen as rain doused embers of coal. I was a robust palm oil fruit which has become a shrivelled charred kernel. The music I hear these days is the swish of the grim reapers sickle, the clattering hooves of death’s black steed crashing down the cobblestones of my soul. I sleep perpetually in the embrace of cold’s chilly fingers, the only warmth I feel on my pallet being the pillow of my tears.  The echoes of silence fill my home, no children running about, no man to call my husband (He walked). I haven’t been touched in many years, only loneliness sought, courted and is now betrothed to me. I used to walk about in a cloud of Chanel NO 5 but now, the odoriferous smog that dogs my every step is part of what has made me a hermit in the temple of my solitude. Church doors are barred to me, the law says I am too tainted to worship.  I have needle bites all over my arms yet I am no junkie, but veno-punctures required for a battery of tests have drained me like vampires. Angels in all their forms have attended to me, young, old, black, white, bespectacled, friendly, ornery, name it but none has been able to heal. Their white coats, a mockery of their shortcoming as their fingers probe and their speculums explore.  I am continually subjected to the impassive glare and robotic examination of radio-diagnostic inspectors.  My affliction has made them richer and left me poorer. All my saving and investments are gone.  Recently my breath comes in short gasps and rattles in my throat with every step. With the most minimal exertion, weakness soaks every fibre of my being, pampers me in its sauna and floods me with sweat. The latest report is that my heart is failing. Fat and back, the ugly worms of suicidal tendencies worm through the rotted wood of my consciousness, truth is, the burden of living has become too much to bear. I am on a trajectory of fatality, a derailed train on a mountain pass heading for an inevitable end. My life is haemorrhaging away, I have a primary issue amongst all these, a dozen years issue of blood……….

Then I heard about Him and there was a twist in my tale. My tragic saga turned into one of hope. He sowed in my heart the seedling of a fairytale…

Our Narrator embodies all our travails and agonies. Life is a hive of issues and they come out stinging like a furious swarm of bees and their anaphylactic shock kills.  The memories of terrible nature can also be quite long lasting. We are in a lot of ways similar to this woman, in the sense that issues can be spiritual, physical, financial, emotional, psychological, marital, relational and every other …..al. Hers though primarily physical affected every other area of her live. Issues dog our steps with rapid intensity until we run out of breath.  They make one bleed and drain life. Legion in their multiplicity….bills with deadlines, (tuition fees, hospital bills, premiums, rent, mortgage, wedding, etc) lack of jobs, unfeeling creditors, unfaithful partners, divorce, single and lonely, married and lonely, married without issues, battering spouses, mean bosses, loss of loved ones, low self esteem, racial and other kinds of discrimination, chronic debilitating illnesses, addictive habits, PHCN blackouts, terrorists, air crashes, abominable traffic, dismal leadership,  separation from God…. issues are a burgeoning list of hopelessness……

I heard about the Galilean on the airwaves on my small transistor radio, the only gadget I now own. He is a miracle worker everyone seems to say and it sparked something within me.

·          I started thinking differently; I stopped seeing death and started seeing life.  My thoughts went from sickness to health. MY PERSPECTIVE CHANGED!

·         My thoughts translated into my words, I kept saying if I could touch Him, I would be healed. MY WORDS GAVE ME LIFE AND IMPACTED MY DESTINY!

·         My words translated into action. I STEPPED OUT, went for broke, put everything on the line. I wasn’t going to sit at home and give up! I was going to get healed or die trying!

·         With the milling throng, it would be a tall order to reach Him but if I can navigate my way around to just touch the helm of his garment, I would be cool. I SAW POSSIBILITIES WITHIN MY CHALLENGES!

·         The hem of a garment is almost nonexistent relative to the whole clothing, it was a connection point. Irrespective of how diminutive, CONNECTION POINTS ARE VITAL! I found mine, what is the one you need for your issue? Remember the mustard seed.

·         Fighting through that unruly crowd was extremely exhausting but I JUST COULD NEVER GIVE UP!!!!!

·         Most times, we wait for God to touch us, but I decided to touch Him! I THOUGHT OUT OF THE BOX!!! You can touch him too with your prayer, worship, praise, gift, time, faith…..what are you waiting for?

·         Unclean humanity that I was I handled spotless divinity which I wasn’t supposed to do. The law strongly says so, but to live, I BROKE THE NORM!

·         MY FAITH WAS STRONGER THAN THE IMPEDING OBSTACLES, both physical and otherwise.

·         Loads of folks surrounding the Man, shoving and pushing, BUT I SINGLED OUT MYSELF FOR DISTINCTION! That’s the only thing that would make my own touch unique, what would differentiate me.

·         I slowly reached out, painfully stretched until MY BEING WAS A LIVING BALL OF CONCENTRATION.  All that mattered at that moment was the hem of his garment; it meant more to me than the Golden Fleece to Jason and his Argonauts.

I finally touched it, a contact so faint it seemed it did not happen but……SUDDENLY! EXPLOSION…BAM…I was zapped by a power beyond my comprehension, Zoe; God’s divine life surged through me and dried my poisoned well.

I felt like Persephone emerging from Hades womb into a spring eternal. Every cell of my being sang merrily and laughter burbled in my spirit. I WAS HEALED but more than that I felt whole. Joy percolated within me and gave me a heady high rush. The future was not scary anymore; there was a fresh taste to life.

He called me to Himself. It is actually true that the eyes are the mirrors of the soul; they were pools of mercy, seas of kindness merging to form an Atlantic of love.  His azure eyes washed me over in a river of peace.

As I left him that day, all eyes were fixated on me especially that of one of his disciples. He is quite a hunk, gosh! My blush has returned. Life is beautiful once again. I skip with gaiety into a future of possibilities…..

 Yet I hear His voice forever resounding in my tomorrow, telling me the sweetest words I would ever hear………………

DAUGHTER, GO IN PEACE, YOUR FAITH HAS MADE YOU WHOLE………………..