Strong Hand of Love

This week's song is "Strong Hand of Love" written by Mark Heard. The attached video is of Bruce Cockburn's version. Randy Stonehill, Sierra Hull, and Daniel Amos have also done great covers of this song.

How far would you go? If you were literally the creator of everything, how far would you go to connect with your creation? Step back. How far would you go to connect with those in your family? Your parents? Your children? Grandchildren? Sometimes connecting means being there, being present, even when you are not able to be a giant part of someone's life. That is incredibly difficult in our instant gratification society.

Of faith, hope, and love, love is the greatest. Love makes us to things that we would otherwise not consider. Christ, who was and is God the Son, did not hold on to his high position. Instead he decided to reach his creation by becoming his creation.

As we begin to enter the Christmas season, we often reflect on the baby Jesus. The innocent child. It is a time of hope and potential. Hope is something that was greatly needed some 2000 years ago, and something we greatly need today.

Jesus, the baby, does not stay young for long. He grows. He grows up. We see glimpses of his youth, and then we see his three year ministry followed by some very heavy theological events at the end of his life. In between his birth and his death, he is present. He is there for people who are normally overlooked. They have value to him. He is there in the middle of a storm, and is not amused by the tempest. He simply tells it to "be still." He is present as a group of sordid fisherman, a tax collector, a political anarchist, and general outcasts transform into his inner circle and literally change the world forever. He is there. Watching. Encouraging. It was as if he was part of the soundtrack of their lives, guiding and directing. Never far.

Today we laugh and cry. We dance and we sigh. We must have eyes that can recognize the strong hand of love hidden in the shadows. He is still there. Present.

Young dreamers explode like popped balloons
Some kind of emotional rodeo
Learning too slow and acting too soon
Time marches away like a lost platoon
We gracefully age as we feel the weight
Of loving too late and leaving too soon

While we are busy living life, he is there. Desiring to connect with his creation. We may learn to love too late and give up too soon, but he is still there, in the shadows, waiting, watching, and encouraging. Look. Look for him.

Of faith, hope, and love, love is the greatest. May you see, hear, and breath love this Christmas season. Look in the shadows and remember that sight, sound, and breath was given by the creator out of love and a desire to connect with us.