Have you ever thought about what it meant to be in the hollow of His hand?
Frail, fragile creatures of dust that we are--
we need a place of safety--of warmth--of rest.
It's not easy to think of ourselves in this place of rest
when we are trying to perform to other people's specifications--or even our own.
It's easier to think about our faults and failures, our weaknesses and inabilities,
of which every man on earth has plenty,
and which the enemy will make sure to exaggerate and emphasize and remind us about.
Most of the time, the enemy would like to have us picturing ourselves
like a cat treed by those rascally, barking dogs.
He'd like us to think that our back is against a wall--
or, worse--against a cliff--and the dogs are coming after us.
Talk about insecurity!
Neither people nor devils very often take time to remind us that
"You are in the hollow of His hand.
You are in the shelter of His arms!"
If we could get a hold of that,
we might actually begin our day with courage, smile at the next person we meet, and find strength for our daily duties.
Instead, we find ourselves all twisted up in knots when we are trying to have our morning devotions.
We have to choose to find a word for us in Scripture--
like the one where Christ wept, "O...how oft would I have gathered you,
as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings!"
It all depended on whether they "would" be gathered, or not!
Jerusalem's men and women, grandmas and grandpas, husbands and wives, young men and maidens
refused to be gathered.
They preferred to find their own way and do their own thing.
They would rather climb the swing set and sit there in mid air...
than be gathered safely under His wings.
We can go to God in our prayer time, feeling that He is far away,
and that there must be something wrong with us,
feeling very, very alone,
When the truth is that He has promised to be with us always--
even to the end of the world.
We do not have to walk this path alone.
There are hundreds of promises to lean on,
and seven thousand brothers and sisters, figuratively speaking, who have not bowed the knee to
the gods of this world.
We can lift our heads from the icy shadow of doubt and despair,
and look to Him, knowing that He is near.
We don't have to dwell in the shadows,
when we can bask in the sunshine!
There are times when I've gone to my knees in my morning devotions
and just ended up asking,
"Dear God, what is wrong with me?"
Those are the kind of mornings that really you just need to get your head out from
being buried in the overstuffed chair, and just go on out to the kitchen.
Pour yourself a cup of tea...
and have a picnic in January.
So what if you have been, at times, a silly goose.
There are plenty of other silly geese out there, too.
Like that person next to you acting so pious.
It was the lost sheep the shepherd brought home on his shoulder,
not the ones who were chewing their cuds righteously in the fold.
And it's the broken and torn,
and the weary and worn...
that He chooses to mend and polish and shine.
He can turn the geese into swans,
and the ashes into beauty.
All in the hollow of His hand.
