A Hand to Hold

I can well remember my Mam-ma’s hands. 

So much of my time with her was spent watching those hands serve. 

Cooking, baking, making me a sandwich. 

Playing cards, sewing, holding my hand in church while I sat on her lap.

I’d know her hands anywhere by sight and by feel.

Her hands loved me. Which is why I think of them so often…

“The poor and needy search for water, but there is none;

their tongues are parched with thirst.

But I the Lord will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.

I will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys.

I will turn the desert into pools of water, and the parched ground into springs.

I will put in the desert the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive.

I will set junipers in the wasteland,

the fir and the cypress together,

so that people may see and know,

may consider and understand,

that the hand of the Lord has done this,

 that the Holy One of Israel has created it.”

Isaiah 41:17-20

I do not enjoy being thirsty.

I do not like to be in need.

But it happens. Sometimes.

All the time.

It is possible to reach the end of every visible resource.

God knows this. And He sees.

Not only that.

He has BIG plans.

Plans that may make absolutely NO SENSE.

A desert pooled with water, growing giant trees?

Rivers on barren heights?

Parched ground producing springs?

To be truly thirsty and parched, one must go without for some amount of time.

How long? What’s the threshold?

We aren’t assured of that knowledge unfortunately.

The thirst and longing may remain well into a very scorched dehydration.

“I will not forsake…” is the promise that we have.

The reason?

So that people may see and know the hand of the Lord.

A hand that creates and acts FOR US in big ways.

A hand that expresses relationship poured out to satisfaction.

 “So do not fear, for I am with you;

do not be dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you and help you;

I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

Isaiah 41:10

There are moments when I need to be reminded.

 Our God reigns in the midst of impossible.

A transformational quenching is guaranteed.

We will know it by His Hands.

Father,

Renew confidence deep into our spirits that fear and dismay have NO PLACE in us.

You are our God and you are WITH!

You strengthen, help and uphold.

We cling to your right hand.

Open our eyes wide in every season of impossibility.

As you have promised, do not forsake.

We wait for your answers.

We name the answers we have already seen!

Thank you for your love, Father.

Because of Jesus and in His Name—Let it be so!