These hands

These hands caught me as I fell when I was a toddle, they brushed the dirt from my clothes. They bathe me, comb my hair and put the clothes on that I wear. These hands take care of me. They are also the hands that held onto my mother when I was a child and later held my own children and caressed them and wiped the tears from their faces when all was not well in the world.

These hands held onto my husband as we said "I Do" and he placed a ring on my left hand, as I did his. They have held my new babies as I looked at their tiny hands and wondered if my own were ever that small. These hands also held eight new grandbabies.

These hands held my dad's hand as he struggled in his last days and lost the battle with the cancer that he had, and they helped me to find the right words as I searched through the scriptures for the answers when my own daughter lost her husband in an accident. They held her and her babies through the storm.

These hands have drove a combine, tractor, truck, pulled calves, lambs, baby piglets, and milked the cows. They have gathered eggs, held baby chicks and later fixed them for a meal that my family would eat. They have tended a garden and canned the bounty that God gave us in the season.

These hands have made cookies and all of the favorites of my family and they have washed, ironed and mended the clothes that they wore. They have made dresses, suits, coats, prom dresses, pajamas and even the undies and labored in love at the sewing machine into the night.

These hands have also pointed out that what a child was doing was not right and they have spanked bottoms when the occasion arose. These hands have also blown kisses as my loved ones drove of to other destinations, and reach to embrace them when they returned.

They have made telephone call, written letters, reached for a hug from my loved ones and folded in prayer to the Father who gave these hands to me. These hands are the ttools that I use in each thing that I do. I must make sure that they are the tools that glorify the Father in all things. Although they have ached, are chapped and have arthritis in them these days, I thank God for these hands.