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Hands that Create As I look back on my early childhood and teenage years, I consider myself extremely fortunate that I was brought up in a home where every encouragement was given to us children as we tried out new things, experimented with gadgets, and in every possible way – tried to extend our creative wings. Even if our first attempt at building something didn’t go as planned – we were encouraged to go back to it, to modify it, make some changes, and try again. I think that’s where I learned a degree of persistence – which Dianne still marvels at, but it doesn’t worry me,- when,- for example, I have spent some hours building a model aircraft, and on its maiden flight, it comes in for a bad landing which does serious damage. I am not daunted by the fact that it’s “back to the workbench” and that it may take some more hours to repair it before I fly it again. I guess I have been brought up to realize that life doesn’t always go smoothly, and that we don’t always succeed the first time around . I am grateful, as I look back on life, that I had both a father and mother who were extremely creative in their own ways. My Dad, especially, enjoyed doing things with his hands, fixing things, making new things. Even in his older age he enjoyed making things for us. We could see that Dad got a kick out of using his creative gifts for us. Last week, as we began a new series in Lent, we thought about the Praying Hands of Jesus. That Jesus was first and foremost a man of prayer, .. but today, in this second Sunday in Lent, we are thinking about the Creative hands of Jesus. And I would like us to remember that Jesus, the Son of God, didn’t just come into existence on that first Christmas Day! Jesus is unique because he was, and is, the eternal son of God, who was in the beginning with God, and St.John tells us in the opening words of his gospel, that it was through Jesus, the Son of God, that the whole of creation came into being. The opening words of the Letter to the Hebrews reminds us that Jesus is the one through whom God created the universe. The hands of Jesus are, in a very true sense, the hands which created and fashioned all that is – seen and unseen! You may or may not believe that God is the creator of the Universe, but what I have discovered is that the more I come to believe and trust in God, the more I marvel at the amazing complexity and generosity of God in creating all that is. And what also follows, though we seldom stop and think about it, is just how amazing God has made us humans to share in that creativity. Look around you! Apart from basic raw materials – is there much that is around us, that is not made by some person? Everything we have around us is the result of someone using their creative mind and hands for the benefit of others. And that’s what Jesus did also. Today in the gospel reading, we see again, the creative hands of Jesus at work. Those same hands that flung stars into space, as it were, grasped a hammer and worked a plane in the carpenters shop. But when the time came to go public – the same hands that created the universe, and that carried wood and hammered nails, took the ordinary things of life , and for those who had eyes to see, revealed yet more of the amazing grace of God in what are called His miracles. In the actions Jesus took in the Feeding of the 5000 we can see a parallel in how we might use God’s creative gifts given to us.
As we journey through Lent , the praying hands of Jesus remind us first and foremost of the necessity for a close and personal relationship with the Father, which is established and built through prayer. Secondly, the Creative hands of Jesus encourage us to use not just our hands, but all that they represent – our gifts and our talents, our energies and our efforts – to serve and glorify God through serving others. Bring your gifts to God; Give thanks for your gifts ; and Use your gifts in His Service and to benefit others. |
