On a shelf in our dining room rests a sculptured pair of cupped hands. Nestled inside the hands are 19 smooth, polished stones. One is dark brown. Five are light brown. Thirteen are white.
The hands represent Father God’s hands. They are cupped in order that each stone be held in their palms, just as the Bible tells us that God holds us in the palm of His hand.
The stones represent our children. Yes, all nineteen of them. The dark brown stone represents Steven, the baby boy we were prepared to adopt years ago, whose birth mother changed her mind and did not let us take him home from the hospital. The five light brown stones stand for our five children alive on earth. And each of the thirteen white stones represents a child conceived during our IVF attempts who did not live long enough to have a chance at being born on this earth, and who is now waiting for us in heaven.
Someday, I will see those babies, look into their sweet little faces, and know what they look like. But until then…God holds them in His hands and hugs them in His arms.
Someday, we hope to see Steven again and to know that he had a good life, even if it wasn’t the life with us that we had hoped to provide for him. But until then…God holds Steven in His hands.
Even though five children live with us, so that we can see their precious faces every day, hug and kiss them and tell them we love them…God holds them, too. When we wrap our arms around them and soak in the feel of their precious hugs, and maybe even bow our head to kiss the top of theirs, God is ultimately the One holding them until the day they go to live with Him forever.
You see, children are precious to God. He loves them exceedingly. In fact, in a time when children were nothing special as far as society was concerned, where they were definitely supposed to be seen and not heard, Jesus made it a point to hold them, love them, and welcome them into His presence.
And Father God still does the same today.
Children are welcome in His presence. They are beloved. That’s why He holds them close—not because He has to, but because He wants to.
Not just the people whom society would consider children by virtue of their age, but those whom Father God considers children.
That includes all of us.
You. Me.
Right now, as I sit here trying to be faithful to the words God wants me to put on the screen so that His heart and intentions will reach yours, He is holding me in the palm of His hand. As you sit reading, he holds you too, wherever you are.
But not just for now. Just as those stones always rest in the pair of artificial hands, we nestle in the hands of the Father continually.
That will never change. In fact, when He walked this earth, Jesus took time to spell it out. “No one is able to snatch [you] out of the Father’s hand,” He said. That means no one can ever make us leave Father God’s love and care. Period. End of story. That’s because, as Jesus told us, “My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all.” God is so much more loving and powerful than anybody else that He is the one who gets to determine where we rest. And He has lovingly gathered us into His hands and offered us the privilege of resting there.
Not just right now, not even just today, but every second of every day for all eternity.
He’s promised to love us and hold us until we see His face…and then forever.
That’s a promise our souls can rest in. Starting now.
John 10:29—My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.