Whether or not you’re a country music fan, you’ve
probably heard the old song Daddy’s Hands. Whenever I hear it, a lump forms
in my throat. My dad had a rather unique left hand, injured in an accident when
he worked in a gypsum mine before I was born. With surgeries and skin grafts,
they managed to save it, but Dad’s left hand remained at a strange, stiff angle
and his use of it was limited. Still, I loved Dad’s hands. To me they
represented love, care, and tenderness because he was a loving, caring, tender
dad.
When I met and married my husband, I loved his hands
too. One morning in 1995, after he switched from an office job to farm work, I
noticed how his hands had taken on that greasy look of mechanics and farmers.
Sitting across the breakfast table from him, I said “you know, I’ve always
loved your hands, but it’s going to take a while for me to get used to them
looking like this.” I couldn’t have guessed in a million years that later the same
day, Jon would injure his arm in an accident and we’d be saying good-bye to his
right hand.
Following Jon’s amputation, I found myself unable to
sleep and would get up to read my Bible. Passages about the hand of God and the
arm of God jumped out at me from everywhere. You can imagine how comforted I
felt to read the following:
“Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed,
for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with
my righteous right hand...” Isaiah 41:10. God’s strong, safe hands endure
forever.
My dad lives in Heaven now and I know he has two
strong, healthy hands. I look forward to seeing that. I know my husband’s arm
will be fully restored one day, too, and I really look forward to seeing that.
But the hands I long to see most are the only hands
that will bear scars in Heaven. Nail scars. And those scars were no accident.
They represent Jesus’ own choice to endure pain and death on a cross out of
love for me and you. An old hymn says “I shall know my Redeemer when I reach
the other side by the print of the nails in His hands.”
This weekend, as we remember Christ’s sacrifice and
celebrate His resurrection, please take a good look at your own hands and consider
the ones that took the nails for you.
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