Rev. Hannah Loughman

A couple of nights ago as my husband and I were saying our bedtime prayers with my 4-year-old daughter, she said, “I wish I could just give Jesus a real hug.”

You have probably said these words or ones similar to them over the past five or six weeks, “I wish I could just give so and so a hug.” You have probably wished to have that physical contact with someone you love, someone you miss. Even if you could just sit across the table from each other and enjoy a nice cup of coffee or tea, that would be enough for you. Some good face-to- face conversation would satisfy a longing within you.

I believe we were created for these types of social interactions. Genesis 1:27 NLT tells us, “So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” The image of God includes a natural community within God's self. The image of God includes the mysterious but eternally present union between God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. It is only natural, then, that we feel as though we are incomplete without the freedom to exercise this innate quality created within us. Even for those who might find themselves to be more introverted, there is still some relational aspect within their lives even if it is minimal. None of us exists only to ourselves.

I told my daughter that night that you CAN and DO experience a hug from Jesus. You experience it when you hug your parents, you experience it when you and your cousins or friends play on the tablet together over the internet, you experience it when we pray for other people, you experience it when we do something nice for our neighbors. Though the ability to physically experience the love of another might be limited we still can experience their heart.

How are you staying connected to those you care about during this time? Are you spending more time on the phone? Maybe you are having a game night via the internet. Some are going to the store for those who are high risk and doing their shopping. Others are refusing to engage in the negative political banter and only use their words for good.

The truth is when you reach in and positively touch the heart of another you reach beyond the physical and into the eternal. You change not just a moment for them, but you have the power to change their world.

The Rev. Hannah Loughman is the associate pastor of Butler First United Methodist Church.