Mustard Seed November-December 2005

The other day I received an email that told the story of a young man that went to visit his grandma and found her sitting on the front porch staring down at her hands in her lap. This prompted me to recall my own life of hands on endeavors.

He asked her why she was staring at her hands to which she replied, "These hands have been serving me for my whole lifetime and I was telling them thanks as I recalled so many times when they were able to be helpful to others". " Tell me what you mean grandma," he asked. Oh, it all started when my mama thought I was old enough to help set the table or fold some towels or go fetch her sewing basket or the evening paper, I suppose. My own story takes over from this point.

Going to school and having to do homework and to make projects taught me the need for hands with nimble fingers to hold pencils and crayons as well as paintbrushes. I became engaged during World War II and worked both in a cellophane bag factory and as a grocery checker before the marriage took place. If you know anything about bags as they come flying out of a shoot in 400 increments every few moments and having to quickly put them into a box, you may conclude that nimble fingers were a must. Also, if you've watched the local checker at the super market scan each item, try to imagine ringing up each item after first punching in the price and then turning a handle to record the price of each item!

My Hands

After I was married and had raised my two children, while traveling the world as an Air Force Dependant wife, enjoying five years as a civilian homemaker then came a divorce. I became a widow after my second marriage in only six months and had to go to work to support myself.... until I married Earle Stanwood who had happily joined me in using our hands to look up Bible verses together. Both of us became the wedding coordinator-decorators for our church friends and helped dozens of people become married in a variety of settings, each one unique and a challenge. We also decorated for graduations, banquets, luncheons and going away parties. These fingers have tied thousands of bows and arranged hundreds of flowers in both live and silk bouquets, corsages or boutonnieres, and for a variety of meeting places such as churches, halls, schools, homes, parks and even in backyards and, I'm still doing it as asked to by family and friends.

It has been my great pleasure to use these hands of mine to not only honor God, but also to continue to serve others. After I have first dressed and prepared myself each morning upon arising I thank Him for yet another day for being able to help others, such as making or doing projects for my school teacher daughter.

Did you know that there are twelve and a half columns of biblical references in Strong's concordance for the word hand? Obviously our Great God considers hands to be used in many, many, different ways and expects them all to honor Him.

-Jane Stanwood