Day 1
In Sunday School, I remember singing a song which started ‘Jesus, Jesus here I am. Jesus, Jesus, take my hand’. While I don't remember all the lyrics, I remember the sign language we learnt with it. The sign for Jesus is to take your middle finger from one hand and place it in the palm of the other and replicate the other way. The sign for Jesus is illustrative of the nails pierced through His palms on the cross.
Other signs or gestures could describe Jesus, like pointing upward to Heaven or over our hearts, but His hands were such a big part of His ministry. With His hands, He healed bodies, flipped tables, caught fish, broke bread, and, ultimately, He allowed His hands to be pierced with nails, as He offered His life for ours.
Before His public ministry, Jesus worked with His hands as a carpenter, learning from His earthly father. Studying the intricacies of the grain, the knots, the colours, the imperfections, so He could craft the wood perfectly into its intended purpose. The role of carpenters is to create and to repair. Not only was this trade a perfect example of Jesus becoming fully man to completely understand our physical hardships or frustrations, it’s a reminder of who Jesus is by nature. He is a Creator, making what is needed and restoring what is broken. He takes time to study our intricacies and the details of our lives to perfectly and intentionally craft us into something perfect in His eyes.
Jesus started life using His hands to make wood and nails into something new. He then gave His life as His hands sat between wood and nails to make us into something new.
Philippians 1:6 reminds us, ‘being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion’. The good work He began in us is not finished yet. He is still crafting us, restoring us, and bringing us into the fullness of who He created us to be.
As new creations in Christ, we are meant to show the world His resurrection power within us. Our lives, transformed by His hands, are signs to others of the great things to come. He is still bringing life to dead situations and resurrecting hope in our hearts. Let us walk in the confidence of His work in us, trusting that He is making all things new.
Other signs or gestures could describe Jesus, like pointing upward to Heaven or over our hearts, but His hands were such a big part of His ministry. With His hands, He healed bodies, flipped tables, caught fish, broke bread, and, ultimately, He allowed His hands to be pierced with nails, as He offered His life for ours.
Before His public ministry, Jesus worked with His hands as a carpenter, learning from His earthly father. Studying the intricacies of the grain, the knots, the colours, the imperfections, so He could craft the wood perfectly into its intended purpose. The role of carpenters is to create and to repair. Not only was this trade a perfect example of Jesus becoming fully man to completely understand our physical hardships or frustrations, it’s a reminder of who Jesus is by nature. He is a Creator, making what is needed and restoring what is broken. He takes time to study our intricacies and the details of our lives to perfectly and intentionally craft us into something perfect in His eyes.
Jesus started life using His hands to make wood and nails into something new. He then gave His life as His hands sat between wood and nails to make us into something new.
Philippians 1:6 reminds us, ‘being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion’. The good work He began in us is not finished yet. He is still crafting us, restoring us, and bringing us into the fullness of who He created us to be.
As new creations in Christ, we are meant to show the world His resurrection power within us. Our lives, transformed by His hands, are signs to others of the great things to come. He is still bringing life to dead situations and resurrecting hope in our hearts. Let us walk in the confidence of His work in us, trusting that He is making all things new.