Hands

Consider your hands. They tell quite a story and are used in myriad ways. I fear that mine show I have never done a day’s hard labour in my life.

Psalm 134 includes the instruction “Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the Lord.”

I’m going to avoid the temptation to overexplain and just share the following, I hope it is helpful.

My hands are dirty and grimy,

discoloured, scratched and broken

How can I lift them to you in worship?

These hands have done bad things

They are to be hidden away, covered up

Hands that punch, push, poke or pinch

Or scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll…

And swipe, click, type and select

Hands that take me to places I should not go

And do not do me good.  

How can I lift them to you in worship?

And yet, and yet, and yet…

You take me by the hand

Those selfsame, ashamed, dirty hands

And wash them, cleaning the muck and grime away

From under the fingernails

Washing them clean, fit for new purpose

And then, and then, and then…

You declare them holy, unblemished, pure.

And I notice your hands

That hold mine

Contain nail holes

And you wash my hands,

Not in water, but in blood.

So I lift my hands – declared holy – to You in worship.