What Have You Got in Your Hands

Exodus 4:1-5

Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?”

2 Then the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?”

“A staff,” he replied.

3 The Lord said, “Throw it on the ground.”

Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. 4 Then the Lord said to him, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. 5 “This,” said the Lord, “is so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you.”

We had a guest speaker at church this Sunday and he used Exodus 4:1-5 as his text. Near the beginning of his sermon he told us to look at our hands. Naturally, I looked at my hands and saw the knitting project I was working on during the service. Yes, I knit during church. But, the point that he was making is that God asked Moses what was in his hand and then showed Moses how he could transform it.

Last night, in small group, we talked about what we have that God can use. Everybody has something different that God uses every day to reach people. Jesus told us to love our neighbors as ourselves, to tell other people about him, to give to the needy, to visit the sick and those in prison, and to take care of widows and orphans.

For most of my life, I would have said that God gave me the practice of medicine as the way to make a difference in the world. And, indeed, my ten years in medicine were fruitful and life-giving to my patients and to me.

Now, though, what is in my hands? My knitting. I love to knit for me and for other people. When I hear that someone is sick or needs something specific, I quite often will figure out something to knit for them. I'm also hoping that this blog will be a way to use my skills to encourage and engage people.

But I miss practicing medicine. It's been 12 years since I had to leave practice and I miss it. So, I grieve occasionally still. I'm figuring out, though, that I still have things in my hands that God can use.

What is in your hands?

Catherine