I have small hands. It has always been so. They're hands inherited from the small hand side of the family. Dainty, not too stubby, one of my favourite bits of me. I drew my hands a few months ago - it was a reflective exercise in noticing. They didn't come out bad really, in all their lines and strategically placed moles that have always helped me distinguish my left from my right. They may be small, but they stretch far - that's playing the piano for you - they stretch almost to an octave and two notes, and so long as I don't play too long, I can sustain that position where the shape of my hands becomes more like a line for a while.
I have small hands. It has always been so. I can fit them inside a pringles tube and reach the crisp nectar at the bottom without having to break them as they pour out. Their smallness means I can't carry much, and so when you're sharing out sweets I inevitably miss out. I drop things - with fingers closed the surface area is not large enough to carry and with fingers open the things fall quickly through the gaps as my hands stretch wider and turn into that octave and nearly two notes reaching line.
I have small hands. It has always been so. And with the fear inducing news my hands feel even smaller. How can I carry the weight alongside and for those who I love and serve when right now it feels heavy, and the predictions declare "it's going to get heavier still, in fact, so heavy, that nobody's hands will be able to carry it"?
We have small hands. It has always been so. But thankfully there is one who has bigger, and His hands are sitting underneath our own, so close that sometimes they are indistinguishable from our own. And His hands hold yours and catch you before you fall. His hands take the weight of the crisis that is coming and promise to help carry the load you're carrying through. His hands are big enough to both stretch beyond the octave and to hold everything you carry easily, and everything that makes you say 'no more'.
We cannot know for sure how the next wallop in the cost of living crisis will hit us, and some will wonder if they can take anymore. It's not just going to disappear even if we try and bury our heads in the sand.... this we do know, though, his hands - they're big enough to hold it all. Examine them, see your name written on them, and see how He holds yours.... and then see how you might be the one to hold your hands in the same way under another's as they also face what is ahead.
"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
