Hands that Serve

Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart.

Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at

home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you

rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand...

Deuteronomy 6:6-8a

I do understand “Keep these words ... in your heart. Recite them ... talk about them.” Keeping them in my heart is easier than reciting and talking about them, but I am learning to do that, too. But, what did the writer of Deuteronomy mean, “Bind them as a sign on your hand”?

Look at your hands. Palms up. Palms down. Palms up again. Look at the photo of the hands of five generations of women above. Men, this is for you, too. What do you see? Manicured or ragged cuticles? Soft and smooth or callused and rough? Young and rounded or old, wrinkled, and gnarled?

These are ... or are invited to be ... the hands of Jesus, the hands that bear the Good News into all the world. These are the hands that serve others, hold and comfort, feed, heal, redirect, carry one another’s burdens, bear the words and the Word into all the world. These are the hands that leave Jesus’ fingerprints all over the children of God ... of all ages.

Whose hands left Jesus’ fingerprints on you? How did they do that? Sometimes, these are the “likely suspects”: Sunday school teachers and pastors, confirmation mentors and Bible study teachers, parents or spouse. Sometimes, they are the ones who don’t fit that profile. It might have been a grandparent with a fourth grade education, a gruff football coach, the girl who invited you as a new student to sit with her friends in the cafeteria the first day of school, the teacher who believed in you and pushed you beyond what you thought you could accomplish, or the custodian who found you crying in the hall and just sat with you.

Now, look at your hands again. What is God calling you to do with those capable hands? Begin now.