Healing Hand of God

Last time I wrote an entry I included two songs which have TREMENDOUS meaning for me  in my current situation.  Both songs have totally different purposes and meanings (to me at least), but they share a common thread.  There's a line in each that refers to God's hand.

From Safe:  "The hand the holds the world is holding your heart" and "These are the hands that built the mountains, the hands that calm the seas.  These are the arms that hold the heavens, they are holding you and me."

From I Will Not Be Moved: "Though sometimes my prayers feel like they're bouncing off the sky, 
The hand I hold won't let me go and and is the reason why I will stumble, I will fall down, but I will not be moved."

I wanted to do a little background and research on the meaning of hand in scripture. I find that it's a popular idea to allude to and thought it might deepen my understanding of God.  Boy did it.

To start, I went for the most obvious place: the Bible Dictionary.  Right? Look up the word and get a definition.  Talk about loads of information.  The entry for "hand" began like this:

"One of the most frequently used words in Scripture, occurring over sixteen hundred times."

Whoa.  Ok, so it's a pretty popular reference.  So i continued reading.

"In the [Old Testament] the hand is also the symbol of personal agency.  When the Lord stretches out his hand, it means that he is taking personal action in whatever case or situation is involved, and this usage carries over into the NT"

Stop. Right. There.   These songs have come to mean something very personal to me in my fertility quest.  Those particular lines especially.  According to this dictionary, they go even deeper. By stretching out his hands, holding us in his hands, us holding his hands, etc, he is showing us he's THERE.  He's in it.  He's "taking personal action in whatever case or situation is involved."  I don't know about you, but that's one of the most comforting thoughts I could have, in ANY situation.  

Next, I moved onto topical bible entries.  True, this is merely to tell me WHERE in the bible the word or concept can be found, but it's another resource.  I personally like biblegateway.com.  So I went to the H's and clicked on hands.  Before each bible verse where the word is found, it gives a quick blurb about the context so you know if it's what you're looking for.  Here's some of the ones that stood out:

-Criminals often
-Of the wicked
-Imposition of
-Were washed.

Instantly, my mind associated hands with needing to be cleansed, even forgiven.  But with God, he's perfect so he doesn't need forgiveness so what could that mean? It means he can be trusted.  The hands are dangerous and prone to misdeed.  Our hands can't be trusted.  Heck, one of the entries refers to criminals!  But how much peace we can find in the fact that the hands that are holding our hearts are clean. Trustworthy. Strong.  

This whole thing might seem superfluous to everyone else but me, but I dont think it matters.  I was struck by the fact that hands were in both songs that meant a lot to me.  By spending some time researching the word, it's use and meaning, I was able to understand and see God from a new angle.  Isn't that the whole purpose of being a Christian?

Forgive this odd post as it's not directly related to fertility and seems to ramble nonsensically.  But it seems to be just what I needed :)

"And I have seen the healing hand of God
Reaching out and mending broken hearts
Taste and see the fullness of His peace
And hold on to what's being held out
The healing hand of God"