The Hand of God

We may not see God's hands, but we can feel Him reaching out
to us.

After watching the 2006 Korean movie "200 Pounds Beauty" last Saturday while having a sleepover at my friend's apartment unit, the phrase "Hand of God" that the surgeon who made possible the transformation of Kim Ah-Jung's role as Kang Han-Na from an obese to a sexy lady uttered (thanks to the subs) in the final scene keeps on running in my mind. Well, that was not the first time I heard that phrase. In the sixth episode of the 1987 Japanese action series Maskman, a predecessor of the Power Rangers, the kid was so amazed by Takeru's (Michael Joe in the Philippine broadcast), the Red Ranger, punching power that the boy thought Takeru has the "Hand of God". Those are just fiction. Reality has its own dose of the "Hand of God" thing. In the 1986 FIFA World Cup quarterfinals game between Argentina and England, Argentine soccer superstar Diego Maradona punched the ball to the goal as the English goalkeeper chased the ball too. The referee thought Maradona headed the ball in that the official did not whistle for the handball infraction. Even his teammates knew it was handball. But Maradona celebrated so everyone thought it was legal. That controversial non-call proved fatal as the Argentinians marched to the Final 4 with a 2-1 with Maradona scoring the other goal for the South Americans. He initially denied that he used his hand, but in 2005, Maradona admitted that it was indeed a handball and in fact intentional. You can check out the controversial play below.

I'm pretty sure God has hands. The question is where I can find it. The answer: in us! We might not see God's hands, but we can find them in us, God's people. How? Firstly, we can find it in our close peers. From our relatives to our friends. A classic example of this are the friends of the paralyzed man in Mark 2. He wanted to walk again, and upon learning that Jesus was in town, he wanted to go near Him so that he may be healed. If not for his friends, who needed to drill a huge hole at the roof of the place where the Lord was so that the paralytic will glance upon Him. Jesus Christ healed the paralytic and was able to stand up and walk. (Read Mark 2:1-12)

However, you can feel the Lord touching you through others, as in the people that you don't know. When Paul was blinded in Acts 9 after seeing Jesus, the former Saul didn't know what to do. Here comes a certain Ananias, went to Paul's place, and by the power of Jesus Christ healed him. Oh, have I already mentioned that it was only the first meeting between Paul and Ananias? Have I already mentioned too that Ananias was hesitant of going to Paul's crib because of the latter's background as a persecutor? Yet, Ananias followed God's command and groomed Paul to become one of the greatest apostles of the Lord.

Lastly, God's hands can be seen through Jesus Christ Himself. God knows we have sinned and fallen short of His glory (Romans 3:23), and He knows we must deserve a penalty (Romans 6:23a), but He also knows our need of getting saved from the bondage of sin. So He Himself came to earth, take the form of a human, and made Himself the One to be crucified and not us. If not for the Lord, we might have been suffering in hell right now, but thanks to His sacrifice, we can now receive eternal life (John 3:16, Romans 6:23b) and get the right to be called God's children (John 1:12). Hence, we, as God's heirs and co-heirs of Jesus (Romans 8:17), can receive the blessing the Heavenly Father gives to His only begotten Son.

To conclude, we may not physically see God's hands, but we are secured that He is reaching out to us. All we need to do is to grab His hand and let Him lift us out of our troubles.