The Necessity of Exposing Our Wounds
KIA STEPHENS
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“When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, ‘If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.’” Mark 5:27-28 (NIV)
Two weeks after an unexpected kitchen mishap, it was time to remove the seven stitches in my index finger. I was looking forward to having a fully functioning left hand. But when the doctor unwrapped the gauze, his face communicated that my healing journey was far from over. In actuality, it had just begun.
“Did you wrap it like this every day for the entire two weeks?” he asked. I described my daily ritual of washing, applying a generous amount of ointment, and tightly wrapping my wound. I thought I was doing a good job.
My doctor shook his head and said, “Your wound needed to be left uncovered. Oxygen promotes healing.”
Although he was referring to my finger, I immediately saw a profound parallel between my physical wound and the father wounds I’ve experienced. My parents divorced when I was 3, leaving me to grow up aching for my father’s love. Initially, I didn’t readily expose those wounds either.
We tend to keep our wounds hidden, but concealed wounds do not heal. We see this with the unnamed woman in Mark 5, who had been chronically hemorrhaging for 12 long years and spent everything she had to see doctors:
“When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, ‘If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed’” (Mark 5:27-28).
Without examining the Jewish law at that time, we cannot begin to understand the risk she took coming out into the crowd. According to Leviticus 15:25, this woman was considered ceremonially unclean. Every bed, chair, and person she touched would have been unclean every day she bled. The only way for her to be clean was to somehow end her bleeding and then make specific sacrifices. Until that time, she was to remain separate and isolated from all people.
Although the risk was great, the possibility of being healed demanded she come out of hiding, potentially “contaminating” everything and everyone she touched, to grasp the hem of Jesus’ garment.
This woman likely felt ashamed of her ailment. She may have feared that healing would never come … but her faith in Jesus was greater than her shame and fear. And Jesus healed her that day.
I kept my father wounds hidden for years. Although I was affected by my father’s absence in my life, it wasn’t until I was a freshman in college that I decided to expose my pain to a safe and trusted friend. Taking this risk opened the door for God to begin a deep healing journey in my life that would have never been possible had I not revealed my wounds.
Exposing our pain may feel risky, but it opens the door for God to supernaturally heal our emotional wounds.
Heavenly Father, help me expose my wounds to You first. Heal my heart as I trust You with my wounded places. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
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Join Kia on her YouTube channel as she shares more about the necessity of exposing our wounds. You can also connect with Kia on Instagram and learn more about her book, Overcoming Father Wounds, on her website.
FOR DEEPER STUDY
Luke 8:44, “She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped” (NIV).
How might exposing your wounds open the door for God’s supernatural healing?
How are you encouraged by the healed woman in today’s Bible teaching?
We’d love to hear from you! Share your thoughts in the comments.
© 2026 by Kia Stephens. All rights reserved.
Proverbs 31 Ministries
P.O. Box 3189
Matthews, NC 28106
www.Proverbs31.org
Originally published Friday, 19 June 2026.
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