God's Hand

Job attributes his plight to God's hand.

Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me! Why do you, like God, pursue me, never satisfied with my flesh? "O that my words were written down! O that they were inscribed in a book! O that with an iron pen and with lead they were engraved on a rock forever! For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me! - Job 19:21-27a

Job tells his friends that God's hand has touched him and that is why he is afflicted and in pain.

Over the past several months, the hand of God has been pretty busy, touching many I know, including me.

But I find it hard to believe that is how God works.  

I like to think of God's hand as a lifeboat on a troubled sea, or a rope to climb out of a pit, a ladder to reach higher, a safe harbor to anchor one's drifting and lost vessel.

But regardless of how Job sees God's involvement in bringing him to this state, Job still clings to the hope and faith that God will extricate him from it.

That's the hand of God I am thinking of, the one that gets us up and out of danger, pain, sorrow, or any kind of troubles.

The story of Job reminds us, though, that pain is a devilish thing.  It takes over our mind and shoves out any hope.  When we are filled with pain and despair, we close the door on God's hand.

I witnessed that yesterday when visiting a dear friend who is being ravaged by cancer.

Our job as witnesses to Christ's healing power is unclear in those moments, when someone we know and love is racked by pain and has lost hope.

We don't want them to give up, even though we know they are in good hands, God's hands.

So, we pray, and like Job's friends, we aren't sure what to pray for.  

In the end, none of us can do for one another what God does for us.  All we can do is be present in His love and ours.

And that can be hard.

More to come...