Grandma's Hands

This precious little hand on top of a very old hand is my youngest grandson's hand, Scottie, in his grandmothers. I would like to say to all my grandchildren..........."Have you ever looked at your hands?" I mean really looked at your hands. I look at my hands, they once looked like Scottie's but now they are wrinkled, with brown liver spots on them and sore with arthritis, but I would like to tell you about my hands: I stop and look at my hands and think how they have served me the past 78 years. My hands though wrinkled, shriveled and weak have been the tools I have used all my life to reach out and hold and care for you. When I was a toddler I crashed to the floor and they caught me and helped me get back up. They put food in my mouth and helped me get dressed every day. They learned to tie my shoes and my mother taught me to fold them in prayer.

They have been dirty, scraped and raw, swollen and bent. Decorated with my wedding band, they showed the world that I was married and loved someone special. They cared for my parents and wrote them letters after I left home. They were shaken when I buried my parents.

They held and rocked my children and wiped away their tears at all ages. They prepared food for neighbors in need and knitted prayer shawls for charity. They have clinched in anger and pointed angrily at times. They have combed my hair, washed and cleansed my body and tended to its needs. They love to play the piano, type, paint, knit, sew, crochet, play cards and make jewelry. My hands do know how to cook, but they do not enjoy it much. They love to dig in the dirt and plant pretty flowers and pull out weeds. Today when not much of anything else of me works real well my hands do not fail me in my every request. They still fold in prayer and these hands are the mark of where I've been and the many miles I have traveled in my life time. I now have pretty nails put on them to frost them up a bit and they luv, luv,luv to wear pretty jewelry.

And I know it will be these hands that God will reach out and take when he leads me home. So to my family, look at your hands, appreciate and take care of them and someday God will take them and lead you back to him again.