It was with Gentle Hands
the world was changed –
not angry fists or fits of rage.
It was the hands of God as never seen,
the mighty hands that shaped our world,
now come to shape the human heart!
He started with a little child,
those Gentle Hands caressed and blessed,
bestowed the Father’s grace and power.
He comforted the broken heart.
He wiped away the stains of tears
and filled their hearts with joys divine.
As Gentle Hands returned to life a precious child
whose life had slipped away!
He stopped to help a beggar to his feet
while Gentle Hands formed clay
to place upon his face.
With cleansing…sight returned…and with it,
hope and strength and life anew!
His mighty, Gentle Hands were raised to calm
the thrashing of the sea.
His words, “FEAR NOT !” rang out above the storm
to everyone who’s losing hope,
“BE STILL !” He spoke and all was well!
Those loving, Gentle Hands reached out to touch…
the “untouchable”.
The leper thought that he had felt
the last embrace of human love,
expelled to live a life alone…feared…despised…
ALONE !
Then Jesus came, and in his “unclean state”,
Christ laid His hands in Godly kindness on one
who thought that life was done.
Yes, healing came to him, too, but BEST of all
came the warmth of human touch!
The hands of Jesus Christ were laid
on one whose sobs shook every cord.
The broken heart was filled with grief,
of wasted years and broken dreams,
of desperate search for fun and friend,
whose empty chambers of the heart
revealed the poverty of life….lived for one’s self.
“I LOVE YOU”, was spoken in His touch
as though He knew her deepest need.
And suddenly those cavities that long had echoed
cold and dark…a glow began that slowly grew
until it filled the room of “heart and soul”
with warmth and grace, unlike the hollow
“joys of life” that she had always known !
And, then one day those Gentle Hands
that came to heal and bless
were stretched out…brutally…
upon a cross and pierced by man
whose finite wisdom cried.
“Not for Me…a Savior…King !!!!
Not for ME a Prince of Peace.
I DON’T NEED your tenderness!!
The KING I WANT is COLD and HARD
to drive away the enemy,
to shape the world with IRON HAND,
to make every man conform, DEMAND !!!”
And so the mallets did their job
of driving nails to pierce his flesh,
and there He hung…from Gentle Hands…
bleeding now…before a jeering world!
“FORGIVE THEM, FATHER, FOR THEY’RE CONFUSED,
THEY HAVE NO WAY TO KNOW THE TRUTH,” He said,
and died!
The “Light” extinguished…darkness fell!
The “Hope of Life” is gone!
“The Word…The TRUTH”…
has now been stilled!
But God’s plan is not complete…
the quietness is but the hush of …
“WAIT!”
With an awesome burst of strength
that shattered the early dawn…
courageous men pretended to be dead.
Christ walks out of the Garden Tomb.
Not returned for sweet revenge,
not to even up the score.
Just to show us, EVERYONE…
how deep His Love…
how wide His Forgiving…Forgetfulness!
His Gentle Hands extend again…
now marked by our crude will.
He invites our touch,
our close inspection of the wound,
to settle every doubt or fear,
to let our fingers move across the spot
where nails were placed…
“FOR YOU !!” He whispers to each one
who comes up close to see for sure.
“I LET IT BE, SO YOU COULD SEE
GOD’S PLAN: ETERNITY!!!”
As with Thomas, who was the first
to gaze upon the outstretched hands,
there wells up within the heart
a strong desire to weep,
a flow of tears of sorrow felt,
the need to worship without doubt.
To say, “My Lord, My God…”
To let Him have His way
within this heart of broken clay.
To let Him have His Will worked out
within us to the very end!
For in the “Final Judgement Day”,
when men will see the way it “should have been”,
we will, at last, be placed within HIS HANDS…
to do as He sees fit, with each of us for…
“ETERNITY”.
Therefore, I place MY life, MY hope,
MY faith in HIS Abiding Love,
Within the GENTLE HANDS of Jesus Christ…
MY SAVIOR and MY LORD!
by Robert Douglas