Thought for the Week: Hands
Trish Carn reflects on hands
Hands can be used in many ways. They can attack or they can succor.
For years I have been fascinated with my own hands. One regret I have is that I didn’t photograph them when I was younger. They were never elegant hands but rather square, practical and capable hands. Now they are wrinkled, though not yet as gnarled as my grandmother’s were.
I have thought about the many things that my hands have done. They have changed numerous nappies, washed unnumbered dishes, steered a car along many roads, cooked innumerable meals and typed an unknown quantity of words onto an incalculable number of pages. They have folded and ironed clothes, sewn on buttons, darned socks and mended tears.
Other people’s hands have done many of the same jobs as mine. But, there are also jobs they have done that I have never attempted: digging coal, sculpting, fletching arrows and much more.
My hands have also caressed, comforted and consoled. Many scrapes and scratches have been bandaged. Many tears wiped away. My hands are not great at typing but they cope. My hands are not graceful like a dancers’ nor elegantly waved around at a dinner party, but they have served me well.
For me, an unforgettable image is that of Albrecht Dürer’s ‘The praying hands’, also known as ‘The hands of an apostle’. The way of praying that is illustrated is not necessarily the way that I pray, but the image reminds me that it is something I must do daily. The instruction ‘Knock and it shall be opened unto you’ is also something my hands must do.
The final, but most important, injunction is the reminder from saint Teresa de Avila: ‘God has no hands but ours’.
What have my hands done for God today?
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