The Hem of Him
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With gravity holding us on this spinning sphere, our thoughts naturally tend to focus on what is here, around us, spinning with us. It’s what surrounds us. After all, we must focus. There is so much to be done with what’s right in front of us. People to love, work to do, calendars to plan, places to go. Tasks to finish, dinners to cook, things to wash over and over again. It can feel heavy. It’s ever demanding. The point is — there is always something beckoning us here.
And yet … the older I’ve gotten and the more I’ve learned, i’ve found a way of living that transforms and lightens the heaviness that the gravity of this world can put on us.
We people pursue setting our eyes on beautiful, magnificent, awe-inspiring scenes. Our country is filled with National Parks holding gorgeous views. Cruises take us to beautiful places promising remarkable sights. We visually drink in sunrises and sunsets feeling a sense of wonder at the color swaths across the massive sky.
But soon after the vacation, minutes after the sunset — we find ourselves back in the reality of dirty dishes and alarm clocks blaring.
And yet… the older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve learned, I’ve found a way of living that transforms and lightens the heaviness…
Years ago Maggie and I went on a mother-daughter trip which required a long drive. I asked her if we could memorize a whole chapter together as we drove… what teenage daughter longs to practice driving on the interstate while memorizing scripture? I hope you’re grinning as you picture her face. But she kindly agreed, and we chose Psalm 91. I’ve always loved the sureness and strength of that chapter. It’s known as the chapter against fear. How many saints have had those words on their lips when the greatest of giants were staring them down. How many have been mouthing the words when torturous pain was racking their body. I know of one remarkable man who held onto each line when his captors did their worst in a prison camp in Vietnam. He came out of that camp stronger. It was the Word of God inside of him that confounded his torturers and grew his soul. His body bled as joints cracked open; his soul was immovable.
To remain aware of the broken ones on this spinning sphere, the realities of life for too many here, the immeasurable sorrows that are the daily dose of living in many places in this world… it is so very important. To allow ourselves to “see and know” the dealings of evil in this world and yet to remain steady and sure in our souls — this requires a miracle.
The first verse of Psalm 91 reads, “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the most high will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.” But do we truly realize how very much we NEED to dwell in His shelter and rest in His shadow? If we have felt the agonies of this world, we do not ever forget how very much we need to dwell near and rest behind Him. Shelby recently wrote a powerful Reach-for-More-of-Jesus reminding us that even when the weight of life is heavy and we find ourselves carrying the weight of something we did not ask for… that as we reach for God, we will find that nothing is breaking under the load — with Him we are able.
When we REACH for more of Jesus and His care, more of God and His strength, more of the Holy Spirit and His help — we are reaching for something so powerful. So silent and yet so strong.
What does it mean to reach?
How do we reach for something that is unseen?
How will we know we’ve taken hold of Him?
Remember the woman who had been ill and bleeding for 12 years? Her story is told in Matthew 9:20-22, Mark 5: 25-34, and Luke 8:43-48.
It’s a remarkable telling of a true story. The woman pressed through the crowd to reach out her hand and touch the hem of Christ’s robe. She reached past those who would condemn and shun her. She reached for the One she knew could heal her. What did she reach for? His hand? His arm? His leg? His foot? No. She reached for the hem of His robe.
Recently I’ve been transfixed on the meaning of “the hem of His robe”. For those who walk closely with me they know I’m regularly focusing on that hem.
The hem of clothing is the part that is found at the very bottom of a garment. It’s the part that is rarely noticed. No one walks up to a well-dressed chap and says, “Wow, that hem you’ve got there….” The hem is the part that will get dirty most easily, for it glides just above the dirt below it. The hem does one thing on a robe, it finishes the garment.
It finishes it…
When I think of dwelling in the shelter of the most high and resting in the shadow of the Almighty, I think of the hem on the robes of God. The hem that becomes the dividing line between finishing His great robes and whatever lies beneath His robes. And I find myself right there in that space.
I’m hiding there.
In my mind I often run to the Father, and as I approach Him (small as I am and mighty as He is), I picture His great hand lifting up the hem of His holy robe and allowing me to hide myself there, under the seat of His throne. He lays that great hem down again and I rest in the shadow, dwell in His shelter. And in that place, the hem of His robe surrounds me….it surrounds me. Nothing of this world, nothing of myself, nothing that’s cracked or broken, wounded or wailing can reach me there — not even my own wailings. I’m sheltered, dwelling, being healed at the hem of His robe.
There is a wonderful word for the hem of the Robe that heals. It’s a Hebrew word — kanaph (כָּנָף, Strong's #3671). It’s pronounced “kaw-nawf” (kaw like jaw, and the naw in nawf as well)
It’s even an artistic word when written in Hebrew...
Kanaph can be translated to "wing," "extremity," "edge," "border," or "skirt". It appears 109 times in the Hebrew Bible where it is used to describe the wings of birds, angels, and cherubim, as well as the edges of garments or the corners of the earth.
About now you might be wondering, “Why in the world is Donna going on so much about a hem, a kanaph? Why is she making such a big deal of this?”
Dear one, it’s only because it’s my current fore-most example of… “the older I’ve gotten and the more I’ve learned, i’ve found this way of living that transforms and lightens the heaviness of life…”
What we fix our eyes on, where we set our mental focus, what we live for, what we reach for — this will determine how we can bear the weight of life without breaking under its load. So I reach. I reach for the hem. I reach for the hem of His robe. I hide myself behind it. It heals. It quiets the whirl of the maddening thoughts and heavy worries. I focus and reach for the lowest thing on the robes of my Father and find it heals — still.
It’s what my friend did in the POW camp.
It’s what the woman did who was rejected by everyone.
It’s what so many have done and they were better for it.
They focused on Him; they reached for the kanaph. That swaying robe that carries hints of the dust and grime of the world and yet is separate from it, set apart and able to heal any who choose the touch of His hem over the whirl of the crowd.
Miraculously — if we set our eyes on the Savior, dwell in the shelter of the most high, rest in the shadow of the Almighty, and reach for the kanaph of the One who saves — we find that we are stronger, humbler, kinder, free-er, wiser, and better able — to choose 5 smooth stones and stand before any giant.
Sometimes we just need to remember to reach and take hold of the Hem, the kanaph, of the One who has already won.
Philippians 4:8-9
“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”
