Kenneth L. Samuel: The Works of Your Own Hands
"Forsake not the works of thine own hands." - Psalm 138:8 (KJV)
Is there a worse feeling than coming to despise that which was brought about by your own making?
A marriage that you conceived and enacted in love becomes a burden too much for you to bear.
A wonderful dream you envisioned becomes too costly to pursue.
A child you conceived in prayer and hope becomes an unwelcome intruder in your home.
A plan you engineered for peace and prosperity becomes an engine of hostility and inhibition.
Imagine God gazing glumly upon the humanity made by God in God's own image. What does God see when God looks upon the human work of God's own hands?
Selfishness and avarice venerated as successful business models... Preachers pimping the Prosperity Gospel for their own profit... The proliferation of guns and the scarcity of mental health resources... The deification of sports/entertainment and the neglect of moral discipline... Fear and phobia aimed against all that are different and diverse... Materialism run amok... Wars and rumors of wars... The private profiteering of public incarceration and the pervasive divestiture of public education...
Does God see enough to abandon us? Or in light of all that God sees, does God abide with us in love?
It is always difficult to conclude that what we have made has degenerated to the point that it has lost all of its value and redeeming quality.
But God's steadfast dedication to a fallen, corrupt, misguided humanity continues to remind us that no one is beyond redemption and no evil can nullify the good that was made by God's own hands.
Prayer
God show us when we shouldn't crush our creations, but care for them more deeply. Amen.