Farmers' Hands

They are often big.  Big, cracked, dry and dirty.  Weathered by time and hard work, these hands show strength.  It is a strength of not only a physical stature, but of time and purpose.  They show a strength of character.  

Hands that shake bankers hands with promise to begin each year.  These hands fulfill that promise with integrity at the end of every year.  These hands shape the land that has been handed down to them.  These hands gamble every spring by sowing the possibility of life into the dirt.  These hands defy the odds by nurturing that life into existence.   These hands plow out a life.  These hands provide life for others.  These hands offer back the life God gave them.

Over the past several weeks I have noticed these hands time and again.  I notice the dirt, the chipped and broken nails, the rough skin.  Above all else I notice the beauty in these hands.  

The beauty comes in the integrity, the perseverance, the nurturing.  The beauty of theses hands I see every week comes from the reflection of God that they show.  These farmers are reflections of their God, who created this world, nurtured it into life, and fulfills daily the promises that He gives.