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3/25/2024 0 Comments

She took what was not hers...

Depleted, destitute, outcast, the unnamed woman dared to reach through the crowds to touch Jesus’ robe, certain she would be healed. She had been bleeding constantly for twelve long years. Her assets were gone—spent on doctors who left her worse than ever.
Desperation. Even desperation requires courage, and she took what was not offered—she maneuvered through the unfriendly crowd for just one touch of the Rabi’s garment. Immediately, she was healed. Immediately. After twelve years of crushing illness, her body was healed. Her faith and the courage to reach through the inhospitable crowd healed her.
The astonishment doesn’t stop there. Jesus’ great wisdom did not let her slink away from the crowd to bask in her new found health but perhaps with the burden of taking what was not offered. He asked who? “Who touched my robe?” He waited for someone to confess. Trembling, she courageously broke through the crowd again and dropped to her knees, admitting what she had done. Jesus gave her an even bigger gift. “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.”
Hmm. Not only a clean bill of health, but a peaceful, grateful heart for all her days.
I’ve read this account in Mark 5:25-34 many times, but never paused to consider the courage and faith it took for this unnamed woman to defy the dictates of the time.
Talk about resilient women!

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The Zoo Lady
Belle Benchley is a fascinating woman who made her mark in the world of zoo management. She had no rank, no bonuses, no mentors, or women's shoes to fill, yet her grit and dedication have made it possible for us to experience wild animals up close.
I was intrigued by her as a secondary character it the novel, West with the Giraffes, an excellent novel by Lynda Rutledge. The author tells Benchley’s story so well in her Historical Notes that I will quote here:
“An early glass-ceiling breaker, Benchley came to the fledgling San Diego Zoo in 1925 as a civil servant bookkeeper and quickly began doing everything from taking tickets to sweeping cages in the burgeoning but always-cash-strapped zoo, until she soon took over directorial chores after a series of male directors didn’t last. While she was known in newsprint and popular culture by the time of our tale as the only female zoo director in the world, the official title given her by the zoo’s 1927 male board of directors was “executive secretary,” until voted “managing director” just before her 1953 retirement. Through her long tenure, she became affectionately known as the “Zoo Lady” and in 1949 was the first woman elected president of the American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums. Her first book, My Life in a Man-Made Jungle, was published in 1940, becoming an international bestseller, and was sent to soldiers overseas as a morale booster. She followed it with three more. One of her most forward-thinking ideas was a school bus program that brought second graders to the zoo, fueled by her belief that the only way people will care about nature’s wild animals is to meet them, which now infuses all conservation-minded zoological institutions’ missions.”
Wow. Speaking of resilient women!

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She took what was not hers...

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