I recent chapter I read is Mark chapter 5, and it has a lot of good stories but I want to focus on verses 25-34 where Jesus heals a woman who has had a sort of bleeding for twelve years.

Mark 5:24-34 NAS

24 And He went off with him; and a large crowd was following Him and pressing in on Him.

25 A woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years, 26 and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but instead had become worse— 27 after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched His [a]cloak. 28 For she had been saying to herself, “If I just touch His garments, I will [b]get well.” 29 And immediately the flow of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. 30 And immediately Jesus, perceiving in Himself that power from Him had gone out, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My garments?” 31 And His disciples said to Him, “You see the crowd pressing in on You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’” 32 And He looked around to see the woman who had done this. 33 But the woman, fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. 34 And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has [c]made you well; go in peace and be cured of your disease.”

Now at first glance this could seem inconsequential, as Jesus healed many people. What stood out to me is the fact that she had it for twelve years! That’s over four thousand days and over three hundred million seconds. It’s a hard amount of time to imagine. I’m sure that it was a fact of life for her, like living in the same place for a long time.

The chapter also says, “She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse” Mark 5:26. So, over the course of twelve years she tried everything, but it only got worse. I don’t know about anyone else but at this point I would have lost hope in finding a remedy of some kind. But she didn’t. In fact, she had so much faith, that when she touched Jesus’ cloak, she was healed. That to me is amazing!

It really isn’t inconsequential as she lived this way for over a decade. You see a lot of people being healed by Jesus but not as many who were healed by their own faith.

I feel oftentimes this little story is overshadowed by his raising of a young girl from the dead a few verses later, and his casting out of the demons into pigs, but there is so much you can take away from these few short verses. She endured twelve years and still had so much faith that deserves to not be forgotten.