Our Tools
Whatever you do, do well. For when you go to the grave, there will be no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom. Ecclesiastes 9:10
How valuable are your hands? If your not sure, ask some who doesn't have them. Our hands are the tools we use everyday without a single thought. We use them to do the simplest things: buttoning a shirt, pouring our morning coffee, tying our shoes, or pulling on our boots. We use them to fix our hot dogs, hold our fork and knife to cut our steak, turn the key in our vehicle and hold the handle bar on our motorcycle. When we need to pick something up, our hands are there to the rescue. When we want to complete a job, our hands give us the ability to do so. When we want to unwrap our favorite candy bar, our hands willing give us the opportunity to get the chocolaty morsel into our mouth. The value of these two assets that make our lives so much easier are overlooked and under appreciated. Go ahead, look at your hands. They may have calluses from long days of manual labor, or they may be silky smooth because of the care you give them, but one thing is for certain, your hands are incredibly important.
Not only are our hands important to us and bring happiness to our world that is satisfying, they can also cause pain for others. How many time have we selfishly used our hands to grab, grip, and grasp something that would have helped someone, but we wanted it for ourselves. How many times have we used our hands as a weapon of choice: punching and slapping, because our temper wasn't controlled. An interesting fact about our hands is that we cannot cheer, encourage, or strengthen anyone with clinched fists. Have you ever tried to clap for someone without an open hand? It just doesn't work. In fact, if our hands are balled in a fist, we don't want to clap anyway, do we? The harm that can come from our hands can turn a child's life into nightmares and an adults life into a lifetime of suffering and even get us a ticket to the steel bar hotel. The very same tools that bring us incredible satisfaction, can be the same tools that destroys someone else.
On the flip side, our hands can bring happiness and wholeness to others. Our hands can cradle the head of a dying loved one that needs our comfort just before they close their eyes for the last time. Our hands can give stability to the elderly gentleman that is unsure of his footing. Our hands can brush the tears from the cheeks of a little one who thinks they are lost. Our hands can give encouragement to one who has just been given a pink slip and wonders how they are going to feed there family. Our hands can offer help to one who has fallen and can't find their feet. Our hands can bring healing to someone with a broken heart, a broken spirit, and broken dreams. They can give hope to those who's sun has been extinguished, and help to those who are carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders. The question is, have you looked at your hands lately? Have you paid attention to how they have been used? If we have eight fingers, two thumbs, and palms that hold everything together, they can either be a blessing or a curse, honor or disgrace. What's your choice?