Today’s devotional thought is from Shiann:
I spent my growing up time in what I've always thought of as mainstream Churches of Christ. We openly discussed many things some churches avoided, yet our practices were primarily considered conservative. As a result, I had not been exposed to, and never fully understood, the concept of one’s raising hands in worship, prayer, and so forth.
Being a primarily logical sort, I generally rejected that which I didn't understand. In college, I tried to explore the subject of lifting hands further because of my desire to understand the people around me and their motivation. “Lifting holy hands” was mentioned in scripture, so I did not disdain those who participated in this expression, but I still just didn't "get it." It continued to seem a bit awkward to me, and sometimes even showy. (Here I must insert that my expression of worship at this time was almost solely hands-on service.)
I continued to live in the tension of not understanding the raising of holy hands until one rainy day in early spring just a couple of years ago. My understanding came, not during a worship service, but during a funeral service. The funeral honored the life of a twenty-something man who had passed unexpectedly. The father of this young man expressed an array of emotions during the service, as one might expect. He and his wife clung to each other as parents, confused and deeply hurting. With his other hand, he reached up as far as he could. It seemed as if the man was grasping for the very hand of the Father. He reached for the comfort and hope that only the Creator could give. His reach appeared painful as his hand stretched so long and so far to grasp at hope.
Many lessons come from this story. At times, hope is easy to hold onto. Sometimes we have so much hope, we need to use both hands to keep it all in, in an almost palpable fashion. Sometimes, we must reach so far for hope and yet we still do not feel it in our grasp.
Hear I Corinthians 13:13 from The Message: "But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love."
Hope is one of the things we have to hold onto as we lean deeper into a completeness of our relationship with our Father/Brother/Comforter/King.
Blessings,
Shiann
