The Personal Touch

My dad was not someone who enjoyed writing. You could even see it in the shape of his fingers. They just weren't made to hold a pen or type on a keyboard. His fingers were more like thick strands of cable, strong and ready to work. But when it came to writing my mother's birthday cards, my dad would turn into a poet. It wasn't easy. He would trudge upstairs to a little room in the attic where he wouldn't be disturbed. To grease the literary wheels he sometimes even took a glass of wine along with him! But each year he would come down with a masterpiece. Without fail, my mother cried when she read them. Dad was the kind of guy who could have gotten away with just signing his name at the bottom of mom's birthday cards. You didn't have to spend much time with him to see he wasn't the "touchy feely" type. But he ventured into an area of life where he wasn't all that comfortable because he knew how much a handwritten, personal note meant to my mom on her birthday.

The personal touch--it makes all the difference, especially in a world of recorded telephone calls, mass e-mails and bulk mailings. We receive all sorts of communications from people who pretend to know us but have never met us. What a treat it is to receive a handwritten note in the mail or even a personal e-mail from a friend! The personal touch--it's one person saying to another, "You are special to me."

Have you ever wondered what it might be like if God personally touched our lives? It wouldn't take much, we think, a short note, a quick conversation. And yet, God does come to us with that personal touch. Each time we receive Holy Communion, that is his way of coming to us individually and saying, "You're forgiven. You're mine. You're going to be with me forever." Regardless of what is happening in your life right now, the God who made you wants to personally touch your life.