Show Your Hand
March 31, 2011
When I was a young girl, my family, along with my cousins and their families would visit my Italian grandmother, especially on holidays. At the time I was just tall enough that if I stood on my tiptoes my eyes could clear the top of my grandmother’s dining table where I would see rows and rows of grandmom’s handmade cheese stuffed ravioli. Soon after arrival we would sit down to a delicious meal of Italian wedding soup and cheese ravioli. The cousins all sat in the kitchen while the adults sat in the formal dining room all day peeling fruit, cracking nuts, and conversing on topics about which we had little understanding as children. So that left us with the task of entertaining ourselves.
Often we played this game which we believe we invented, and one that cannot be bought at Toys R Us – “Show me what’s in Your Hand.” We used my grandmother’s staircase and sat two or three cousins across the top step while one cousin was the leader who stood one step down in front of those seated. He/she placed the penny in one of the hands and it was up to the seated ones to guess which hand. The leader would place two closed hands in front of us and we would tap the hand of our guess and say show me what’s in this hand. If we guessed correctly, our reward was to descend one step. The winner was the first person to reach the bottom of the staircase and in turn became the leader. For some reason, being the leader, holding the power of the game, was more thrilling than being the guesser.
Interestingly, God had played a similar game of “Show me what’s in your hand” with Moses. In Exodus 4:20 we read about God asking Moses about the staff that was in his hand. God told him to throw it on the ground, and when Moses did, the staff became a serpent. And when God said to pick it up, it became a rod that was to guide and shepherd the people. As a result, God showed the Israelites His power and convinced Moses that he was up to the work to which God had called him.
It’s important to place things in the right hands. An advertisement for Allstate Insurance drives that point home:
Marion and Erma Bennet Winn. Longest married couple in the US
After 77 years, 7 children, 14 grandchildren and 40 great grandchildren, they’ve ended up in a good place.
THE RIGHT HANDS MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE.
Yes, the right hands make all the difference. A sling shot in my hands is a toy. In David’s hands it defeated a giant. A staff in my hands is good for hiking. In Moses’ hands it was good for parting the Red Sea. A trumpet in my hands couldn’t make a sound. Trumpets in the Israelites’ hands led to crumbling Jericho walls. A hammer in my hands COULD drive a nail. A nail driven into Christ’s hands can bring salvation to all mankind.
Whatever is in our hand, when placed in God’s hand, can do mighty things for Him and His purposes.
Show your hand. What one thing are you holding in your most phenomenally created hands that you should place in God’s hands today? And have you placed your heart in the right hands…the nail scarred ones at the end of the outstretched arms of Jesus? (SV)