Dear friends,
I trust you had a blessed Thanksgiving – giving thanks! I can’t tell you the number of times I have heard a prayer at different meals with these words, “Lord, bless the hands that prepared this food.” I always try to thank Patty for every meal as her capable loving hands have blessed me for over 53 years!
On Sunday, we conclude our study in the book Galatians, “Freedom – The Liberating Grace of God.” We will also celebrate communion together. Thomas, wouldn’t believe in the resurrection of Jesus until he saw and touched Jesus’ nailed pierced hands! But touch them he did!
A little boy, growing up in a community where his father served as a Methodist minister was outside playing. He was doing all the things that a little boy does. He was climbing trees. He was swinging on the swing set and jumping out. He was rolling and playing with his dog. His mother called him for dinner and the family gathered at the table. His mother looked at him and said, “Young man, let me see your hands.” There was some rubbing of his hands on his blue jeans before he held his hands up. His mother looked at them and asked, “How many times do I have to tell you that you must wash your hands before you eat? When your hands are dirty, they have germs all over them and you could get sick. After we say the blessing, I want you to march back to the bathroom and wash your hands.”
Everyone at the table bowed their heads and the father said the blessing. Then, the little boy got up and headed out of the kitchen. He stopped, then turned and looked at his mother and said, “Jesus and germs! Jesus and germs! That’s all I ever hear around here and I haven’t seen a one of them.”
I am getting over a cold (I think) and I haven’t seen one germ! But my hands have thousands on them. Jesus’s hands remind us:
- Of His passion to please His Father
- Of His Suffering
- Of His amazing grace
- Of His unending faithfulness
- Of His tender mercies
- Of our freedom to live for Jesus’ sake
I want to encourage you to read Galatians 6 a couple of times before Sunday. Read the chapter out loud and allow your ears to hear words that liberate!
Because He has made me glad,
Glen