December 8, 2020
Cradled in God’s Hands
By Cindy McIntyre
I have a vivid memory of being frightened one stormy night when I was growing up in rural Idaho. I could not have been more than six-years-old. I was sleeping in the bottom bunk with my sister on the top bunk, sound asleep, and I remember the wind howling outside and snow blowing against the windows. Our house was a nearly 100-year-old farmhouse surrounded by sugar beet fields and I remember how creaky and drafty it was, and how pitch dark it was outside the windows. My parents’ bedroom was all the way down a long, dark staircase. I don’t remember what frightened me, other than the storm, but I remember thinking about the song lyric, “He’s got the whole world in his hands…” and imagined being as small as a bunny cradled in God’s cupped hands. That was a comforting thought for me.
Over many years, I have returned to that image – curling up as a small being in the hands of a Parent God. As a Christian, I feel that it is my charge to be God’s hands here in the world. I would hope that I can, at times, be a comforting or hopeful hand. I hope that there are times when I can hold in my hands the needs and concerns of people around me, the way I see my Loving God holding my cares and concerns.
As a Granny now, I look at my granddaughters’ hands in mine – theirs all fat and dimpled and mine with way more age spots than I wish were there. I love helping guide their little hands to do and to learn (and occasionally to correct – though I leave that mostly to their parents). I still find comfort in the image of being held in God’s hands and strive to be the type of person who holds others in my hands when I can physically demonstrate the loving hands of God.
