He Fills My Hands ~ Valerie Ronald

 

Most Sunday mornings I sit in the reverent quiet of our church sanctuary, setting aside personal concerns so I can focus on Jesus. Before me on a table are two silver trays containing broken bread and small cups of grape juice. This weekly Breaking of Bread service, a cornerstone of our faith community, is held in obedience to Christ’s command to partake of the bread and the cup as symbols of the new covenant established by His sacrificial death.

This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.

This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of Me.  

(1 Cor. 11:24-25 NIV)

When the trays are passed, I reach out my empty hand to receive the bread and juice. As I eat the bread and drink from the cup, I am aware of the profound mystery represented by this symbolic act. Until I reached out to take hold of all Jesus offered me through His sacrificial death and miraculous resurrection, my hands were empty. When I received his gift of salvation, He filled my hands and my heart. This communion service represents what Christ has done for me and gives me a focused opportunity to worship and thank Him for the gift of Himself. It reminds me that His life, death and resurrection have fundamentally altered me, making me a new creation capable of works of loving obedience that reveal His indwelling presence.

Before I was formed in my mother’s womb, He knew what He would put in my hand˗˗a gift and a desire to write. It wasn’t until I asked Him to come into my life that I realized what I was to do with that gift. I am to make it available to Him to use for His purposes.

In my hand are resources that inform my writing, giving it my unique flavor. No one else has this combination of life views and experiences.

I have a history. 

I have experiences.

I have interests.

I have choices.

I have a viewpoint.

I have lessons learned.

I have spiritual preparation by God.

I have a platform.

In the Exodus 3 account of God asking Moses, what is in your hand?, Moses doesn’t understand the potential of his lowly shepherd’s staff to demonstrate God’s power. God instructs him to throw his staff on the ground, where it miraculously turns into a snake. When he picks up the snake, it turns back into a staff. This miracle was to demonstrate God’s presence with Moses and his people. Until Moses released the staff from his grasp, he would not realize God’s capacity to help him in the task ahead.

My staff, what I have in my hand, is the words I write. If I keep my writing to myself, not releasing it to God to do with as He pleases, then it will only go as far my human limitations can take it. When I lay it down at God’s feet, it comes alive by His power and may be instrumental in changing lives. Releasing my writing to God does not mean I sit back and wait for Him to act. I am still responsible for doing the work, honing my writing to be the best I can make it, and sending it out to be read by others. From there He takes it to where He wants it and uses it for His purposes, something only He can divinely do.

As a Christian writer, God has given me a platform, not to be placed above others, but to serve. I need to focus on using my platform to not only serve others, but the One who gave me the platform in the first place. It is a form of worship He loves to receive.

This past Sunday when I reached out my empty hand to receive the communion symbols, as I have done many times before, I remembered how often God used the staff in Moses’ hand to bring the Israelites safely out of captivity. The symbols of Christ’s body and blood in my hand fill me with praise for His indwelling Spirit enabling me to use the gift of writing to tell others about Him.


For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10)

Valerie Ronald writes from an old roll top desk in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, with her tortoiseshell cat for a muse. A graduate of Langara College School of Journalism, she writes devotionals, fiction and inspirational prose. Her purpose in writing is to encourage others to grow in their spiritual walk.