During our devotional period at Bible study Wednesday night, I was honored that a little one sat with me for a few minutes. This little friend is not quite 2 years old so she isn't in my class yet. But her birthday is in a few weeks, so I look forward to her being promoted into the 2 and 3 year old Bible class. She is a sweet child and her parents are good friends of mine. Anyway, I was concerned about how I might be able to keep her occupied so that she would sit quietly with me.
I had a pen and some paper and got her to put her hand palm down on the paper. I guess I traced the outline of her hand at least 6 or 7 times. She seemed to like looking at the outline of her hand each time -- or was it the feel of the pen going along the outside of her hand and then between her little fingers. Once I traced my hand and then put her hand inside the outline of mine and traced hers. I am not sure why she stayed so still and quiet, but for whatever reason it worked at least for a while.
As I looked at our hands and the paper we had drawn on, many thoughts went through my mind. I thought about this innocent child sitting in my lap and how precious she is. I thought her sweet soul and what a huge responsibility it is to be a parent. I remembered tracing my own son's hands and how it used to feel to have them in my lap. I compared the size of our hands and wondered how fast she would grown. As I said earlier, I thought of many different things. Then I thought about the hands of God.
Yes, my hands are bigger and stronger than the hands of my sweet little friend; but they are nothing compared with the hands of God. Sometimes, we don't (or maybe I should say I don't - since I have no idea what you think) sometimes I don't think about God's hands at all. I guess because the Bible says "God is a spirit" it just doesn't occur to me. But scripture tells us that God has hands. Actually, there are quite a few scriptures that refer either to God's hands or to Christ's hands. So what do we know about the hands of our Heavenly Father and His Only Son? There are way too many passages in the Bible to mention them all here, but I do want to share a few of them with you.
Psalms 48:10 - "According to thy name, O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth; thy right hand is full of righteousness."
Psalms 95:4-7a - "In His hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills His also. The sea is His and He made it: and His hands formed the dry land. O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker. For He is our God; and we are the sheep of His hand."
These scriptures in Psalms tell us that God is righteous and powerful. The verses from Psalms 95 tell us that God used His hands -- to create and form the earht. They also tell us as powerful as those hands were to have created the world from nothing -- that they are also gentle enough to hold us in His hand and care for us as our Great Shepherd.
Yet we know that as gentle as the Lord is, He can also be fierce. There will be those who fall under the terror of His hand. Those who do not choose to believe in Him with an active obedient faith - those who deny his very existence -- those who "know not God and obey not the gospel" -- they will experience a very different hand of God. Consider Hebrews 10:31 - "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." God is not a myth folks. He is not a fairy tale or some joke to be laughed at. He is the Great I AM -- He is alive. To quote one of my dear sister friends, "I'm just saying.." Just as surely as we know there is a heaven awaiting the righteous, we also know eternal death and darkness awaits those who have chosen not to obey Him. ---I'm just saying......
Scriptures talk about the hands of Christ also. As Jesus went about doing His father's will -- as he went about doing and teaching -- he touched people. No - I'm not talking about He touched their hearts. He actually used His hands to reach out and touch people. I wonder what His hands felt like? He was a carpenter - so we almost know --or at least we imagine that His hands were strong -- maybe calloused and rough from hard work. But the people thronged Him anyway. They sought Him by the hundreds and thousands. As you read through the gospels you begin to realize just how much Jesus used His own hands. He was not afraid of human touch.
Jesus hands, like His Father's were very powerful and yet also very gentle. He touched Peter when He grabbed him from the water when he began to sink. In the two instances of the feeding of the multitudes, He blessed and broke the bread (with His hands, of course.) Jesus touched people when He healed them. He touched Peter's mother in law's hand. And all the woman with the issue of blood wanted to do was touch the hem of His garment. She had that much faith in the power of Jesus that she knew that just touching His clothes would be enough to heal her.
Earlier tonight, I had chosen a few passages of His healing to expound upon, but this post is running long and it is getting late. However, if you read Mark 8:22-25; Mark 7: 32-33; Matthew 8:15; Matthew 8:2 and Matthew 9:28-29 - you will see examples of Jesus touching some of the people who came to Him to be healed. He touched and healed the blind, the deaf and one man (at least) of his leprosy.
Jesus loved people. He had compassion on them. He blessed them and healed them and taught them about the Heavenly Father. He tried to make them understand how important it was to love God and live for Him. One of the most profound stories of Jesus' love and compassion is when the leper came to Him. The incident is recorded in Matthew 8:2 -4, Mark 1:40-44 and Luke 5:12 -13. This poor man, sick with the terrible disease of leprosy -- cast out from his family and his town -- unclean to those who might have known him or loved him -- came to Jesus begging Him for healing. Mark says the leper knelt down to the Lord. Matthew says he worshipped him and Luke says he fell down on his face. All true - no contradictions here. Worshipping can invlove kneeling or bowing down. And from kneeling -- if one is beseeching -- (begging) it is easy to see that he could have "fallen on his face." We get the point -- the leper came to Jesus begging for healing.
Did Jesus think He was too important or too good to take care of this one lowly beggar? Did He think this was beneath Him in any way? The leper came begging -- but he also came with full assurance in the healing power of Christ. He knew Jesus had already done many, many great things. He knew healing him was not beyond Him. This leper knew that Jesus could do it. He had the faith in His power. But he didn't know if Jesus would do it. We all know that He did. Jesus had the courage to touch an unclean man and make him whole again. He was not afraid of touching an unclean man -- a man overcome by a horrible disease.
Oh perhaps I will continue this another night for my mind is still going in a thousand directions. Funny how I went from a sweet child sitting in my lap to the power and gentlenss of God's hands and to the compassion and healing power of our Lord and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Just as my little friend's hands looked so small in mine - so my hand must look small indeed to our great God.
I challenge you to show the same love and compassion for others that Jesus displayed. Be willing to reach and touch someone who might need a pat on the back, or the squeeze of a hand, or maybe even a hug. Show God to the world by showing the world that He is already in you. Let others see that God rules in your life. And always remember -- "we are the sheep of His hand."
Christ above all things,
Robin
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