Hands Down

This is the fun time of year in my classroom. The following is from May of 2009.

In classroom discussions, I tell my students that you can tell quite a bit about folks by looking at their hands. The meat cutters I worked with at the Jack and Jill Grocery Store in Nebraska as a teenager always had nicks in their hands from knife slippages. Smokers' hands can be yellowish and weightlifters' hands are calloused. Our hands can do the will of God or they can get us into trouble. Jesus famously made the point about cutting off and discarding a sinful hand which could keep us from spending eternity with Him. We count all the change for the Honduras orphans by ourselves. What the kids find is that serving can be a joy but it leaves your hands disgustingly filthy. (We make liberal use of antibacterial soap and hand sanitizer!) The girls' hands in the picture above are busy sorting money in my classroom last week. It's a small but necessary step in the process before we can begin the count. I don't remember whose hands these are but I think they are beautiful. I coached a girl named Angie in Georgia who did catalog work as a hand model. I never really thought before about hands being beautiful but they can be. The Scriptures speak of hands in contexts of prayer, service, and proof of the resurrection of the Savior. Jesus blessed little children by placing His hands on them. And these young ladies are blessing children in Central America simply by dividing silver and copper coins into stacks. We should never be idle when there is so much to do and so many to show the love of God. He leaves it in our hands.

Applicable quote of the day:

"What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like.”
Augustine

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

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