What's In Your Hands? - by Sue Campbell

I’ve been thinking about hands lately…maybe because I compare my ‘showing signs of aging’ hands to my granddaughter’s brand-new ones…maybe because one of my favorite things is creating things with my hands…or maybe because it’s apparent to me that my hands feel more ‘normal’ when they’re closed than stretched wide open.   I was thinking about that last one in regards to what we’ve been celebrating at DeWitt Redeemer Church lately –how God blesses us with abundant resources and commands us to be good stewards of them. 

It’s so easy to hold things tightly in our hands, isn’t it?  We work hard, we ‘deserve’ things, we create things that are special to us – shouldn’t we want to grasp them and hold them close?  Aren’t we entitled to do that?

I decided to see how many times the word ‘hand’ was written in the NIV Bible translation.  According to BibleGateway.com, there are 1417 times it appears in Scripture – 1178 in the Old Testament, 239 in the New; beginning in Genesis 3:22 and ending with Revelation 20:4.  A few other words you might think would be written often – Lord (6749 times), money (116 times), love (686) and feet (247). 

“Man could no longer reach out his hand and take from the tree of life…Noah reached out his hand and brought the dove back into the ark…Rebekah covered Jacob’s hands with fur to trick his father, Isaac…Jesus healed with his hands many times and even healed a man’s shriveled hand, and Jesus was delivered into his enemies’ hands…”

God created this very important part of our anatomy for good, but sometimes, not-so-good things come from our hands.  My prayer today is that I remember to look at my hands - think about what I hold too tightly in them and be open to what God wants to pour into them so I can pour out to others.