One of my pet peeves when I was pregnant was having strangers rub or touch my belly.  I remember once  we were at a fast food restaurant placing our order and the girl behind the counter just reached over and started rubbing my pregnant belly.  I jumped back a bit alarmed.  I was always happy to let Hubby sit for hours on end rubbing my belly, talking to it, or just waiting for some sort of movement.  I can remember letting several different family members or close friends engage in this same belly activity, but not strangers.

I recently observed a pregnant friend struggle with this awkward moment as well. We were in conversation at a get together when another woman we both knew walked up and put both her hands on the pregnant woman’s belly and then proceeded to move her hands all around for several minutes.  I could tell my newly pregnant friend (only just starting to show) was taken back.  She moved backward slightly, but was unsure how to handle the situation. She knew the woman, but you could tell she was still uncomfortable with the sudden familiar contact.

There must be something about expectant mothers that make people want to touch them.  People are fascinated. Perhaps it is the cuteness of the bulging belly, perhaps for women its a bonding process of a shared circumstance or maybe it is something deeper.  Maybe the draw is the fact that she carries a whole other life inside her – a new life. There is just something exciting about feeling the baby kick, feeling the new life move and come alive.  Some people are just drawn to it.

I know you are really going to question my thought process here, but remembering how awkward it was for me to have strangers touching or trying to touch my belly made me think of Jesus. (I know your wondering how my mind got from point A to point B, but hang with me). 

While here on earth Jesus was constantly being thronged.  Large crowds gathered around him, pressing in just trying to see Him, hear Him, and touch Him.  Sick, dying, diseased people trying to touch Him in a culture where the unclean shouted in the streets so you could avoid contact with them.  In some cases, they just wanted to touch His clothes (Matt 9:20, Matt 14:36).

Strangers wanting to touch Him. Why? What was the draw? They wanted healing, new beginnings and new life. He embodied new life. Abundant life!

John 10:9-10 (NKJV)

I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.  The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.