When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down and worshipped him; and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts: gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. Matthew 3:10-11.
The five-year-old, intent on her own task, traced her hand with the fingers spread wide apart. Painstakingly, with a variety of colors, she transformed the outline into yet another paper turkey decoration for the Thanksgiving holiday.
On completion of this self-appointed duty, she exclaimed, “I can do so many things with my hands!”
Then she enumerated all of the crafts she had learned to create either by tracing her hand or spreading finger paint generously across her palm and fingers and carefully making an imprint on paper. Besides turkeys, she had made angels and snowmen. She even had created an American flag recently by alternating the fingers with red and white paint and covering the palm with blue paint. After she had made a handprint on paper, this time with the fingers close together, and the paint had dried, she applied star stickers to the field of blue.
As she remembered all that she had made with her hand, she also recalled creating a variety of bugs and other creepy crawlers by putting finger paint just on her fingertips. In her short lifetime, she had crafted ladybugs, butterflies and even a long, hunched-back caterpillar. And there was the field of pumpkins.
As a writing exercise, I frequently ask my high school English students to trace their hand, with fingers spread wide apart, just like a five-year-old eagerly does. I then ask the students to study the hand that they have just traced and list, within the hand outline, ten specific details they can see. While a young hand is smooth and free of much of the character age brings, they still can find a hangnail, freckles, painted nails, jewelry, knuckles, an ink stain and minute scars. They may or may not remember the incident which left that raised mark on their hand in the first place. Recognizing details is a first step in learning to write with clarity.
If my door happens to be open as we undertake this artist’s eye activity, an occasional passerby sometimes stop to inquire about what in the world are we doing. Almost in unison, the class will declare, “We’re studying our hands!”
For those who haven’t studied their hands lately, now is the time to do so, not in order to fingerpaint nor even to take notice of the details an artist sees. Now is the time to examine what we do with our hands.
When time cripples hands with arthritis, we become very much aware of what we used to do with our hands that we no longer can do. As always we appreciate more what we have lost. However, we still have a choice. We can sit around and hold a pity party for one. Or, we can move on and do that which we can still do with our feet, head, mouth, ears and eyes. Not complaining about our poor state is one of the best gifts we can give those around us.
However, for those of us whose hands still function as intended, we need to show our appreciation for this gift that we have taken for granted most of our lives. We must be grateful that we can attend to our own needs that make life comfortable. We must also look for ways to assist those around us. We must give of ourselves in the same way that the Wise Men, with their own hands, opened and presented treasures to the Christ Child.
Some 22 chapters later in the same book, this child grown into a man admonishes his followers then and now. “In as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
Let us put our hands together. We can clap for joy. But we can also pray for peace, for understanding, for ourselves, for our loved ones, for the whole world. After all, God holds the whole world in His hands.
Listen to the wisdom of the very young. “I can do so many things with my hands!” Be creative, be appreciative, be helpful, be joyful, be prayerful.
May God bless you and yours at this holy Christmas time.
2001
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