The Presence of God is but a held hand away

The Presence of God is but a held hand away

We may never think about how much or often the simple touch of another person's hand can mean to someone who feels alone or forgotten.  It doesn’t become just a hand that touches a heart by a loved one’s concern or a sign that says “I care for you.”  There will be times when a stranger is suddenly in your presence for no other reason than the Holy Spirit placed this person there for your own manner of showing God’s concern to someone else.

Have you ever been at the side of your spouse or child who has been ill or depressed and while the attempt to rest you simply reach out with a gentle feeling of your hand on theirs?  Watching the expression on their face that appeared to be stressed change by a simple smile or a relaxed sign that someone does care.  That alone is the answer from God that this loved one asked for without even putting it in words.  They may have thought “does anyone care?”  God hears and sends you to be his answer.

The premise that seems to confound us every time we need a hand to lift us up or hear someone tell us how much they care is the very way that Jesus hears and through his Holy Spirit places a person of his love where the hurting person awaits the answer that even they might be skeptical about.  It becomes a mystery at times how the Holy Spirit places any of us in a needy way for another and at the last minute there we are attending to a need that otherwise would go unheeded.  The ultimate tragedy could forever be a disappointment that even the needy person was never aware of how close they were to an answered prayer.  As I wrote using an example of how the Spirit used me as I was a chaplain at Mercy Hospital.  After visiting with patients I was on my way back to the chapel for a Communion Service before I took the Blessed Sacrament to the same patients.  As I was running late my direction to the chapel was interrupted when the Spirit directed me to stop in this last patient room.  He directed me to go in.  When I saw one woman alone in the room and asked her if she wanted to receive Holy Communion when I returned she began to cry.  She looked at me and said, “Father (at that time our deacon class wore a Roman Collar) I can not receive the sacraments.  Of course without placing the whole story here, she was to be discharged the next morning and already after 13 years she was away from the sacraments.  Here the Holy Spirit used me like a warm hand of Christ reaching one more soul and saving her faith forever.

Today, I laid down beside my wife who was napping.  Yesterday she had a procedure that is used to correct Macula Degeneration once a month.  She needed some time to relax and when I reached over and just gently held her hand I saw an immediate change in her closed eyes and a sign of feeling relaxed because she showed her acceptance of how the Lord was using me to say, “I am here.”

It doesn’t take a lot of effort to give what Christ already gave us;  Love especially with the human touch of God.

Ralph B. Hathaway