When You Need A Hug

You ever wish that Jesus could give you a great big hug?

I'm not talking about one of those pat on the back church hugs or the kind that you give to people you rather not be hugging at all. I mean one of those soul-stirring, rest in your embrace hugs that calm you at your core.

You ever need one of those?

Sometimes life has a way of getting you down. And sometimes you don't even want to get up. Sometimes you feel like you CAN'T get up even if you tried. You want to scream! Shout! Punch your fist through the wall. Do something loud to express how much it sucks.

But most of all you want someone to grab your from your rage, draw you close and tell you that "everything's going to be alright". Maybe not now. Maybe not tomorrow. But eventually things will turn around for the better. And you want to believe them with all your heart.

There's this scene in Garden State where Large (Zach Braff) and Sam (Natalie Portman) are about to depart from her house and her mother gives Sam a hug and then asks Large if he wants one too. At first, Sam tries to hurry Large away because she thinks it's not cool. But what Sam doesn't know is how much Large needs that hug. So Large pauses, turns to her mother and says, "I'll take a hug." And she gives him a great big hug, the kind where he can't help but close his eyes and enjoy her motherly embrace. It's exactly what he needs because his mother just died and his world was in disarray.


That scene gets me every time. And here's why: it's true to the human condition. When our life isn't going the way we want it go, we need to pause, turn to God and let Him hug us. The kind where we can't help but close our eyes and enjoy His Fatherly embrace.