Near the end of Waypoints season 2, we shared two stories that you may have noticed were connected — “A Desperate Father” and “A Desperate Woman.” These two manga “overlap” each other because they’re both based on one story in the Bible. We just told it from two different perspectives (You can read the original for yourself in Mark 5:21-43).
In this story, Jesus was on His way to Jairus’ house to heal Jairus’ daughter. As Jesus made His way through the crowd, a sick woman approached Him from behind and reached out to Him for healing.
The passage tells us that she had been suffering with a disease that causes bleeding — for 12 long years! She’d spent all her money and was still suffering. And in that culture and time, she would have been an outcast too; people were forbidden by the law to come into contact with blood.
So she was sick, poor and lonely. She was desperate for healing, and when she reached out to Jesus, she finally found it. But that’s not the end of her story. An interesting thing happened next…
Jesus stopped.
Why? He didn’t need to, right? Jesus was busy, and the woman had already been healed. Jesus could have just kept going. Certainly that’s what Jairus would have wanted.
But to Jesus, that one woman was not just a part of the crowd.
By stopping, Jesus showed her that she mattered. After years of isolation, she needed not only physically healing, but acceptance too.
And Jesus accepted her. She wasn’t an outcast in Jesus’ eyes. He cared for her personally. He even called her “daughter.”
In today’s society it’s easy to feel isolated. You can be surrounded by people and still feel alone. But no matter how small or insignificant you feel, you matter. You’re not just another face in the crowd. Jesus shows us that each person matters, has value and is loved.
As one verse tells us:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
You are loved. Do you believe it?
