Today's Devotional is written by Pastor Roy Summers
Oxytocin tells a Story
Eva Hemsley! What a Yorkshire Saint! Eva was a larger than life tell-it-like-it-is Yorkshire believer. She had lost her husband and then she lost her own life to cancer. Yvonne and I knew her between those deaths.
But what I remember most of all about Eva was this: whenever she came into a room full of Christians, she went round, one by one, and gave them all a holy kiss. If she was late, this caused quite a stir!
Those kisses did much good because a wonderful molecule courses through our bodies called oxytocin. This little molecule, a hormone, makes us happy and well. It helps to suppress other hormones which might make us feel anxious and angry. It even helps to protect the body from disease.
But how does this little molecule get made? What triggers its manufacture?
When people shake hands or touch one another in friendship or even spend time in each other's presence this molecule gets made.
(This molecule helps baby and mother form a close bond with one another.)
The command to Love
Our short memory verse today reads:
"A new commadnment I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." (John 13:34)
This is a very wide commandment, but I want to focus on one aspect of what it means to love someone, one we are learning in our lockdown era.
We love people by seeing them face to face and by some form of affection. It is not by accident that five times in the New Testament we are commanded to "greet one another with a holy kiss." (Romans 16:16, 1 Cor 16:20, 2 Cor 13:12, 1 Thess 5:26, 1 Peter 5:14).
The command to Kiss
In all the references except the last it is called a holy kiss. In other words, there are to be no sexual overtones, the kiss is to be merely a sign of affection. In the last reference, 1 Peter 5:14, it is called the kiss of love.
We are commanded to express our love for one another in a physical way, which means we must be in the same room with them.
Whether a kiss or a handshake, or a pat on the back may be immaterial, what is important is the touch, the affection.
A mental health spike
It is my guess that the attention given by governments to death figures is greatly skewing the policies they are making. Everything is bent towards preventing deaths. But the cost of doing this, the social distancing, the wearing of masks, is developing in our population all kinds of mental problems. We are inadvertently storing up for ourselves enormous social problems for tomorrow. And since mental and physical health go together, we are also potentially storing up for ourselves health problems too.
Why we need sight and touch
Away from politics and back to church life! We need to see one another and we need to be affectionate to one another. When we see each other little misunderstandings go away. When we touch one another little bonds are formed. It's the God way, the oxytocin way.
At what point then, does the church say to the state, "It's time to relax social distancing, it's time to allow us to meet up and obey the law of Christ?"
In the meantime, Christians need to take up every opportunity to see one another, to invite one another into homes and gardens, to meet up for coffee, and to fulfill the new commandment to love one another.
A SONG FOR THE DAY
Our song for the day is based on our memory verse.
A new commandment I give unto you,
that you love one another as I have loved you,
that you love one another as I have loved you.
By this shall all know that you are my disciples,
if you have love one for another;
by this shall all know that you are my disciples:
if you have love one for another.
Roy Crabtree
You can listen in HERE.
A PRAYER FOR THE DAY
Our ever-loving Father in heaven,
We marvel at how fearfully and wonderfully we are made! In these strange days, help us to find and to create every opportunity to meet up with our brothers and sisters, to express our love, which can never be properly expressed at a distance.
We pray especially for brothers and sisters who are on their own, not only that you would keep them, but that you would help us to love them by meeting with them, as and when we can.
We thank you that the love of God led the Son of God to come down and dwell with us, setting us the example of nearness.
We worship you, in Jesus Name,
Amen
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