The Power of Your Hands

Hello Hump Day friends! I have cousins in Milwaukee via my husband’s side, who are an incredible couple! Jan is retired from a Milwaukee TV station, but still works at a local live theatre using his life-long skills for the stages’ need of communications, electrical, audio, video—all powerful works from his brain to his hands! (And Jan played the organ for Al and my wedding!) His wife, Karen who is Al’s cousin, is a spiritual leader, a deep thinker, writes poetry, and Yoga instructor—her hands share beauty, exercise and loving words.

Karen sent me this posting from a link to the Travel South Africa Facebook which she often visits as she loves travel. I was delighted to receive this and she knew I would want to share it in a devotion. So here are “hands for your Hump Day reading!”

From Elena Barnabé, South Africa, a true story about her and her granddaughter.

“Grandma how do you deal with pain?”  “With your hands, dear. When you do it with your mind, the pain hardens even more.”

“With your hands, grandma?”  “Yes, yes. Our hands are the antennas of our soul. When you move them by sewing, cooking, painting, touching the earth or sinking them into the earth, they send signals of caring to the deepest part of you and your soul calms down. This way she doesn’t have to send pain anymore to show it.

“Are hands really that important?”  “Yes my girl. Think of babies: they get to know the world thanks to their touch. When you look at the hands of older people, they tell more about their lives than any other part of the body. Everything that is made by hand, so it is said, is made with the heart because it really is like this: hands and heart are connected. Think of lovers: When their hands touch, they love each other in the most sublime way.”

“My hands grandma… how long since I used them like that!”  “Move them my girl, start creating with them and everything in you will move. The pain will not pass away. But it will be the best masterpiece. And it won’t hurt as much anymore, because you managed to embroider your essence.”

Wow! So I am challenging us today to think of everything we do with our hands and what it would be like if we didn’t have them! My dear friend, Father Michael Lapsley, an Anglican priest who lives in South Africa, lost his hands to a letter bomb during the wars of apartheid. He could have chosen anger, but instead he chose mercy, grace, and forgiveness. He has “metal hands” and I’m always amazed at what his these hands can do—like work a camera,  I-pad, cellphone, etc! He began a program for those experiencing traumatic violence and pain—Healing of Memories, which is now global. His loss of his biological hands was painful but the gift of medicine in his ‘new’ hands continues to “embroider his essence” in helping others in need of healing and restoration.

Think of the ways hands help heal. During this continuing pandemic the healing hands of those delivering vital medicine and care are angels indeed! CBS had a segment about a man who gives back by restoring cars and giving them away freely for those who have lost their jobs in the pandemic. Not far from our campground is a retired carpenter who helps those in need of fix-ups for their homes and ranches. These stories abound all over.

In fact, the other day Al had to help someone with their leveling legs on the RV, and another with an electrical panel problem—his hands came in handy. While Al and I work at the welcome booth, my sister Emmy walks our dog for us, fills the hummingbird feeders, cleans the RV, helps with our laundry and tends the garden—handy hands from a dear loved one.

It’s truly amazing how God designed us, our hands being one of many miracles in our bodies. We are made in God’s image so think of your hands like God’s hands. There’s about 122+ verses in Scripture about God’s hands! Here’s just a few, read them and apply them to what God has done for you through His hands, and what your hands have done and can do for others:

See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands. —Isaiah 49:16

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand. —Isaiah 41:10

Then the LORD stretched out His hand and touched my mouth, and the LORD said to me, Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. —Jeremiah 1:9

But now, O Lord, You are our Father, we are the clay, and You our potter; and all of us are the work of Your hand. —Isaiah 64:8

The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. —Psalm 19:1

My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. —John 10:29

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. —Colossians 3:1

May each of you be held closely in God’s powerful, assuring, protecting, loving hands. And may you—God’s dear children—be the hands for those who need to be held, protected and loved. With your hands, embroider your essence of God’s love for them, AMEN!

(Picture by Martin Harvey of Elena and granddaughter.)