“Look at Your Hands”
WHERE: Littleton, CO - The Platte River Walkway at Reynolds Landing
WHEN: On a cool morning
BLESSED SPOT: The wood bench
“Hands”
Hands – we touch people with them, provide healing through them, with rings we portray symbols of our love and commitment on them. We do so much with them, and are so limited if we can’t use them. They define us in many ways. They identify our abilities or often who we are - sports, medicine, art, building, creating, writing, gardening – our passions and our jobs are expressed with our hands.
We portray worship with them and lift them in adoration to our Lord. We cover our face with our hands when we grieve and we reach out to others for comfort with our hands. They are a safe haven for our children and place of strength. And it’s really quite mysterious – the relief, the assurance, the healing, the comfort, the emotional warmth from a simple gentle touch. Our uniqueness is specially designed on our hands by God - our fingers. He broke the mold with each fingerprint he created. Is it not by design that one of the most sensitive parts of our body is on our hands - our fingers?
Approximately 17,000 mechanoreceptors (receptors that respond to sensations of touch) reside in each human hand, with the majority clustered in your fingertips. Your fingertips’ ridges, which make up the loops and whorls seen in your fingerprints, maximize surface area for increased touch sensitivity. You have no muscles in your fingers—instead, 17 muscles in your palm and 18 in your forearm, which are all attached to your finger bones by tendons, move your fingers. Essentially, your fingers function like complex marionettes. Completely unique fingerprints form at 24 weeks in the womb and never change - they are forever the same cradle to grave - for everyone.
In Hebrews is says, “In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.”
Christ began his life on earth working with his hands – with his Father – a carpenter.
And the impact of His hands never left this world.
He asked us to ‘tie his laws as symbols on our hands’ - as you live and work and play - don’t forget me! (Deuteronomy 11:18)
When Jesus healed the sick and lame he, ‘laid his hands on them’ - he even stuck his fingers in their ears, touched their eyes and even touched a man’s tongue to heal him! (John 9:6,7; Mark 7:33). He loved them in the most personal way, even those with Leprosy! They were considered untouchable but Christ touched them- you can’t get more personal and ‘risky’ (Mathew 6:3). He didn’t have to touch any of them to heal them - he could have healed him with a word or a thought, but he CHOSE to touch them. What an incredible message of love to those he healed, to those who were watching and an example for us today
In Isaiah he tells us, “ …. See, I have engraved you on the palm of my hands.” (Isaiah 49:16). In John he says that, “… no one can snatch them out of my hands.” (John 10:28) Hands are a picture of strength and safety. Can you picture a movie where someone dangles off the edge of a cliff but their hand is gripped tightly to one on top of the cliff who isn’t about to let them fall - “I’ve got you!” … and they pull them up to safety. And…. we all sigh in relief right? “You are engraved my hands and I’ll never let you go” - that’s a pretty intense picture of someone who loves you.
Moses had to keep his hands raised to maintain victory during a battle – ever reaching, seeking God in humility and need - to the only one who could bring victory. (Exodus 17:11) But when he started to tire, lost his focus and his hands started to slip, they started to lose the battle. There might be some of us who aren’t ‘hand raisers’ in church, but this story kind of brings a fresh sacredness to lifting our hands doesn’t it?
The Proverbs 31 woman is described as, “…. extending her hands to the needy “ God could have said ‘she extended herself to the needy’ or she gave freely to the needy’ and we might picture her donating money . . . at a distance. BUT he didn't say that. The picture he painted was of her reaching out and touching the needy, handing them things, comforting them with a touch - many were probably dirty and smelly and sick . Touching people you don’t know is very risky and…. it’s very very personal. I think of the healthcare workers at the hospital I work at and think of the constant risk they put themselves in by touching their sick and very scared patients.
Years ago I was drawn to invest in the life of a very sick, lost and alone disabled veteran who had HIV. I knew the risk of caring for him in his home and in the hospital, but the ultimate impact on his life, and his family that we found and reunited him with - on my life and my family’s life is beyond words and brings tears to my eyes now. But it was a risk, a pretty big one.
The Ultimate Sacrifice
Christ gave the ultimate sacrifice of all, his life, and they pierced his hands – and darkness covered the earth. But in the stillness and agony of that day, moments before his anguish ended, “Jesus called out with a loud voice -“FATHER, INTO YOUR HANDS I COMMITT MY SPIRIT” – and he breathed his last. (Luke 23:46) Into the hands of God, the ultimate source of peace, strength, security, love and holiness. All the meanings, symbolisms, stories throughout Scripture involving hands just collided and become them all in that instant. He had endured, persevered, fought, and loved us until death and now he was relinquishing himself to the hands of his Father. Why didn’t he say, ‘into your presence I commit my spirit’ or ‘I commit my spirit to you’? Chosen meticulously and spoken out loud, every one of those words of our dying Savior is exploding with meaning and he wanted those who were there to hear it, to write it down so we would hear it.
In God’s loving, gentle way he reaches us in our humanness and reveals holy, incomprehensible things to us through simple things we would understand – our hands. And now, even now, Jesus is the ‘right hand of the throne of God’ –waiting for us to join him. (Mark 16:19)
A little reflection on the bench….
I was drawn to this bench because it looks hand made - psych! it actually wasn’t. But it made me think of the people who use the gift they’ve been given to craft amazing things out of a block of wood. To the right of this bench you will find this shell impression in a rock. I ran my fingers over it to feel the difference - the smoothness of the bench and roughness of the rock. (and then I sanitized my hands :)
This spot has been prayed for
That you would lift up to God your worries and place them in the Hand of God
That one specific message or verse from this devotional would speak directly to you and give you a new perspective on the God who loves you
That you would appreciate anew this gift from God - your hands
Things you can do:
Is there a battle in your life you are waging? Try raising your hands while you pray, even if it feels weird at first.
Take the time to hold the hand of a loved one and reflect on all that hands symbolize and the feeling of that touch.
There’s incredible significance in the Bible to ‘right hands’. Take a look at these links. Significance of the Right Hand (Bible Study Tools); What Does the Right Mean or Symbolize in the Bible
Take a look at the science within our hands - The Marvelous Human Hand
Leave a comment, a prayer or request below
