“I, the Lord your God,
Hold your right hand
And say to you,
‘Don’t be afraid',
I will help you.”
Isaiah 41:13
Holding someone’s hand can signify a lot of things. But the bottom line is that it presents an image of a personal connection. A parent’s instinctual action when there is any sense of danger for a child. In daily life it gives a sense of unity in a circle of people . . . a sense of friendship . . . and a sense of intimacy with someone you love. All those moments of holding the hand of another take on a more personal connection through that simple act.
I remember my daddy and I walking on a busy city street in Chicago, with his big hand holding strongly to mine after a stranger had grabbed my little 3-year-old hand in a moving crowd of people. I can only imagine what may have been the life-changing outcome of the dangerous scenario of one hand-holding situation if my father had not intervened and taken my little hand in his.
I also remember my first teenage “boy-friend” experience. . . a light touch of his hand on mine in a car. No word, no eye-contact, but the touch made a lasting impact on my heart and mind … awakening an entirely new dimension of life than I had known.
Our God, Whose Hands created the heavens and the earth, and formed each of us out of “nothing” tells you and me that He is holding my right hand in His. Whether He is holding my right hand in His Right Hand, or whether He is holding my right hand in His Left Hand is not specified. My right hand in His Right Hand would logically require a face-to-face position. . . a Right Hand to left hand would be side-by-side. What I love about this is that no matter which hand-to-Hand position it is, there is a beautiful image created of God’s nearness and personal connection to you and me. Whether Side-by-side or Face-to face, the relational connection is there.
Of all the ways God uses His Hands, and all of the ways He can use ours, it is this image of God that touches my heart most deeply.
May my hand be an extension of His in my world. . .
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