Post by MIRIAM JACOB on Nov 10, 2007 23:48:07 GMT -5
THE TOUCH OF GOD
by Max Lucado
May I ask you to look at your hand for a moment? Look at the back, then
the palm. Reacquaint yourself with your fingers. Run a thumb over your
knuckles.
What if someone were to film a documentary on your hands? What if a
producer were to tell your story based on the life of your hands? What
would we see? As with all of us, the film would begin with an infant’s
fist, then a closeup of a tiny hand wrapped around mommy’s finger.
Then what? Holding on to a chair as you learned to walk? Handling a sthingy
as you learned to eat?
We aren’t too long into the feature before we see your hand being
affectionate, stroking daddy’s face or petting a puppy. Nor is it too
long before we see your hand acting aggressively: pushing big brother or
yanking back a toy. All of us learned early that the hand is suited for
more than survival—it’s a tool of emotional expression. The same
hand can help or hurt, extend or clench, lift someone up or shove
someone down.
Were you to show the documentary to your friends, you’d be proud of
certain moments: your hand extending with a gift, placing a ring on
another’s finger, doctoring a wound, preparing a meal, or folding in
prayer. And then there are other scenes. Shots of accusing fingers, abusive
fists. Hands taking more often than giving, demanding instead of
offering, wounding rather than loving. Oh, the power of our hands. Leave
them unmanaged and they become weapons: clawing for power, strangling for
survival, seducing for pleasure. But manage them and our hands become
instruments of grace—not just tools in the hands of God, but God’s
very hands. Surrender them and these five-fingered appendages become the
hands of heaven.
That’s what Jesus did. Our Savior completely surrendered his hands to
God. The documentary of his hands has no scenes of greedy grabbing or
unfounded finger pointing. It does, however, have one scene after
another of people longing for his compassionate touch: parents carrying
their children, the poor bringing their fears, the sinful shouldering their
sorrow. And each who came was touched. And each one touched was
changed.
___________________________
From Just Like Jesus
Copyright (W Publishing Group, 1998, 2001) Max Lucado
www.maxlucado.com
by Max Lucado
May I ask you to look at your hand for a moment? Look at the back, then
the palm. Reacquaint yourself with your fingers. Run a thumb over your
knuckles.
What if someone were to film a documentary on your hands? What if a
producer were to tell your story based on the life of your hands? What
would we see? As with all of us, the film would begin with an infant’s
fist, then a closeup of a tiny hand wrapped around mommy’s finger.
Then what? Holding on to a chair as you learned to walk? Handling a sthingy
as you learned to eat?
We aren’t too long into the feature before we see your hand being
affectionate, stroking daddy’s face or petting a puppy. Nor is it too
long before we see your hand acting aggressively: pushing big brother or
yanking back a toy. All of us learned early that the hand is suited for
more than survival—it’s a tool of emotional expression. The same
hand can help or hurt, extend or clench, lift someone up or shove
someone down.
Were you to show the documentary to your friends, you’d be proud of
certain moments: your hand extending with a gift, placing a ring on
another’s finger, doctoring a wound, preparing a meal, or folding in
prayer. And then there are other scenes. Shots of accusing fingers, abusive
fists. Hands taking more often than giving, demanding instead of
offering, wounding rather than loving. Oh, the power of our hands. Leave
them unmanaged and they become weapons: clawing for power, strangling for
survival, seducing for pleasure. But manage them and our hands become
instruments of grace—not just tools in the hands of God, but God’s
very hands. Surrender them and these five-fingered appendages become the
hands of heaven.
That’s what Jesus did. Our Savior completely surrendered his hands to
God. The documentary of his hands has no scenes of greedy grabbing or
unfounded finger pointing. It does, however, have one scene after
another of people longing for his compassionate touch: parents carrying
their children, the poor bringing their fears, the sinful shouldering their
sorrow. And each who came was touched. And each one touched was
changed.
___________________________
From Just Like Jesus
Copyright (W Publishing Group, 1998, 2001) Max Lucado
www.maxlucado.com