Our Daddy's Hands

When I was a little girl, I marveled at my daddy's hands.  He had really large hands and that is not simply from a little girl's perspective.  When they were to be married, my momma bought the largest ring and had it sized up for him.  Yes, he had really large hands, especially for a six foot tall man.  Those hands made every one of his five children feel safe for the majority of the time.  There were, however, times when we knew we deserved discipline and those same hands would be what gave it.  I am not certain how my siblings felt, but they probably felt pretty much as I, that I would rather have five or more swats from Momma than one from Daddy's hand. 
I remember a time when I was five or six years old.  I had done something that greatly displeased Daddy and he called me to himself.  My bottom ached just at the thought.  He was changing a tire, I believe, so was sitting on the ground.  He pulled me over his lap and swatted me once.  That's all it took too!  The tears welled up and I walked away vowing I would never do "that" (I can't remember what it was) ever again.  My Daddy didn't like to spank though.  Many times he would tell me that I was going to receive a spanking when I got home, but when he looked into my tear filled  eyes, he would forgive me instead and cry with me.  Funny thing is, those times made me just as, if not more, determined to never do whatever I had done again than an actual spanking.  I couldn't stand it that I had made my daddy cry!!
Then we all "grew up."  As teenagers we were no longer quite so intimidated by those hands.  They didn't seem as big as before.  This is a necessary part of becoming an adult in the physical world.  Once we are, we must come to the place where our earthly father's hands are let go and we take hold of the hand of our spouse instead.  We are still his child, we just depend on our spouse to be our helper in life. What we don't stop to think about until and unless we become parents and are blessed with watching our own children grow and mature into their own families, is that our daddy will always be there until the day he goes home.  If we have a problem, he is there for advice, or to help financially, or even to fix a broken something - even to the point of holding us when our heart is broken for whatever reason.
As a Christian, I have come to realize that God's hands are not smaller than I originally thought, but larger......MUCH larger.  As a matter of fact, it is almost impossible for me to begin to visualize in my mind's eye how large they must be: "When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars which You have ordained..." (Psalm 8:3 NKJV) 
"The sea is His, for it was He who made it, and His hands formed the dry land." (Psalm 95:5 NKJV)
"Surely My hand founded the earth, and My right hand spread out the heavens; when I call to them, they stand together." (Isaiah 48:13 NKJV)
And these are but a few of the verses that describe all He holds in His hands, our life being just one of them.  If God can hold all of creation in the palms of His hands, then why in the world should I fear going anywhere He lays on my heart to go, or stay anywhere He bids me stay?  Should I fear the condemnation of man, simply because I am called to do something other than he fills he would call me to do?  Should I fear nature and what it might do, or even the evil one and his plots against me?  More and more I begin to understand "But Yeshua said to them, 'Let the children come to me and do not forbid them, for the kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these.'" (Aramaic Translation)
Not only are His hands more than big enough to protect me from any weapon formed against me, they are big enough to discipline me, hold and comfort me and fight for me.  He even made us a promise time after time to remind us of this fact. Joshua 1:5-6, Isaiah 41:10, Phil. 4:6-7, John 14:27, I John 4:18 and many, many more verses tell us time and again that we don't need to fear anything.  God will lead us, protect us and get us to the other side safely.  All we need do is believe and trust Him.  The rest is in His hands.