Touchiness

Some words a standard dictionary associates with the word “touchiness” are: oversensitive, irritable, thin-skinned, peevish, flammable, difficult, hard. When we say one is touchy we mean that person is easy to take offence. This type of individual requires special tact or skill in handling them. Or as the little idiom goes, “You must walk on eggshells,” lest you upset or irritate this sort of problematic person.

My wife has a serious burn on her hand. Last evening I attempted to apply some aloe-vera to the wound, and when I did, she flinched, withdrawing her hand, adding, “Don’t touch it!” Is this not what we say to the Lord when He touches those touchy areas in our lives? Yet, when healing, we are told He touched a blind man’s eyes, and that He touched the tongue of one who could not speak, and still of another who had lost his ear, that He touched his ear.

If God is ever going to cure us of our touchiness, He must touch us there. As long as we withdraw and try to cover and protect that particular region, it will never be healed. It will always be a sore-spot. And woe be to the one who touches it, or even comes close. For he or she would rather go through life wearing a band-aide, rather than be cured of their hideous trait. And what’s worse, while this immature, insecure, adolescent goes through life, the rest have to spend their time pampering them. May God help us; may God help me!