Living Life by Design

Growing up, I don’t recall my moms or my dads hands. That’s a strange thing, isn’t it? I mean, I can remember almost everything else about them…including their feet, lol. I don’t recall being held, hugged or one of them holding my hand. I know my parents loved me. They just had trouble with the physically of it.

There isn’t a day that goes by that I’m not hugging, or holding one of my children or grandchildren. If after I’m gone there’s only one thing that I leave behind, I want that ‘one thing’ to be that there was ZERO doubt in their mind that Dad/Papa loved them fiercely, and that I showed it every time I saw them. I want them to remember what my hands looked like.

God uses hands. We read of Jesus healing through laying his hands on sick people, or even just touching them with his hands (for example, Mark 6:5; 8:23). At other times, he put his hands on people to bless them (10:16). He told his disciples that their hands would be used to heal the sick (16:18). Indeed, people were healed through the laying on of their hands (for example, Acts 8:17–18). Others were filled with the Holy Spirit (9:17; 19:6), or received gifts through the laying on of hands (2 Timothy 1:6).

What about ‘the hand of God’? What does that mean? In the Bible, ‘the hand of God’ means something very profound. Ezra said, ‘Because the hand of the Lord my God was on me, I took courage…’ (Ezra 7:28). God’s invisible and intangible hand is also on you: leading, guiding, encouraging, protecting, strengthening you and giving you courage.

When the time comes for you to leave this world, will your loved ones remember what your hands look like? Will you leave them an example of what it looks like to live a life with God’s invisible hand upon you?

Will they remember what God’s hands looks like?