Look at your hands... do you see Jesus?

take a look at your hands... really look. from the front, back, inbetween the fingers.etc. How many stories can be told through your hands? on my left hand, on the inside of my middle finger, i have a long scar, from when i was 6 and i reached down and wanted to pet the dog as she was eating, something adults know you shouldnt do, but as a child i was just wanting to pet my dog. I reached down, and as an instinctual animal, the dog bit me, so as to protect herself, and her food. or when i flip over my hands, on my wrists, 8-10 small little circle scars on each hand. from when i was a baby, and really sick, these scars represent all the iv's i had. But scars arent the only things that can tell a story. what about how soft your hands are, or how rough, clean, or dirty?but these stories are pure pettyness... what stories can we tell of Jesus's hands today? It amazes me how many times His hands are mentioned when it comes to healing, but also death and suffering. When he comes into Jerusalem, he predicts that he will be handed over to the hands of sinners. When he goes off to Gethsemane, he proclaims, From now on, the Son of Man takes his place at Gods right hand, the place of power. When Peter cuts off the servants ear, Jesus touches the bloody spot with his hand and heals Malchus. Pilate questions Jesus, determines that he is being railroaded, and then gets into a dispute with the crowd over Jesus ultimate fate. In the end, he takes out a bowl and washes his hands, symbolically trying to wiggle out of responsibility for Jesus death. When they take him to Golgotha, of course, the soldiers pierce his hands when they nail him to the cross, pounding through the palms of his hands spikes large enough to hold the weight of a grown man. Perhaps most remarkably, at the very end of it all, Jesus final words a quotation from Psalm 31 are words that commend his life to Gods hands, Father, I place my life in your hands.
When Jesus put his life in his fathers hands, it is a prelude to offering that life to us, handing it over to us. When he offers his hand to us, encouraging us to clasp his in ours, the two whole lives whose stories are written into those hands are exchanged. The scars of our sinfulness, and brokenness are gathered into the scars of his life-giving crucifixion. His death becomes our life. Our scars signal the mortality that is part of life for us. His scars have death already behind them, and those scars on his hands become for us the sure sign of eternal life.
Like Jesus, we too need to put our lives into Gods hands, because its not always about the scars on the hands, or the color, or the size, or how soft or rough, but rather, its about whose hand you hold within it, and whats in your hand. We can be in Gods hands, we ARE in Gods hands... how great is that?