Let your hands be strong

Your hands, they are marvelous.

They're more than tools to make art, they are art themselves. They are intricately wired with capillaries and tendons that make your fingers dextrous and nimble while you move up and down the fingerboard of the violin. They sparkle on the keys of the piano and sing the heart's song.

They are covered in epithelium that protects them as you form a snowball to throw at your brother after the first great snowfall.

Your hands looped bunny ears in your shoe laces when you were 5, and your parent's hands clapped with delight. No more velcro for you!

They held onto the handle bars of your bike while you went zooming down that hill.

Your hand waves "hello". Your hands chop, slice, and julienne.

Water flows over them and you wash your hands. Again and again and again.

Fingers curled around weights, you strengthen your arms. New-born pearls of fingers curl around your thumb, and you strengthen your melting heart.

Hands stroke the hair of your beloved in the sunshine, in the quiet. They wipe away the tears that stream upon your face when your beloved is gone and it's dark.

Fingers turn pages and you feed your soul upon a wealth of stories and experiences that increase your knowledge. Your mind expands.

Fingers type. You write several words, you change your mind, you press the delete button. You send.

Fingers pick up the toys that are scattered across the floor for the 19th time in one morning.

You pick up a sandwich, you slice cake, you spiral spaghetti with your fork, you hold an ice cream cone, you sprinkle rubescent paprika on your chicken.

Your hands can love and they can wound. At night you pull the sheets up towards your face, in the morning they cradle a mug of coffee to wake up.

When you begin to think about it, your hands really do a lot more than you think they do. Maybe that's why God told the Israelites in Zechariah, in the midst of their disaster, "But fear not, and let your hands be strong." He says it twice in that passage. When the light falls from your eyes and your hands are limp and you don't know what to do, let your hands be strong.

When you're no longer waving "hello" and instead it's "goodbye"...let your hands be strong.

Because I know things can be hard, I know that more often than not, your hands are working to simply keep you from falling apart, but let them be strong, "For there shall be a sowing of peace. The vine shall give its fruit, and the ground shall give its produce, and the heavens shall give their dew. And I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things." Let not your hearts be troubled, let your hands be strong.