We’ve got it all backwards…
Somehow we’ve been tricked into thinking that the God is something we just slip on like a glove. As if we are the HAND that needs Him to fit US. As if we can survive on our own and only put the glove on as necessary – when we’re “cold” or when it’s needed for “safety”. The rest of the time we see ourselves as a hand that can do it ourselves.
That theory works until it doesn’t.
The reality is that WE are the glove. The glove created from the dust of the ground that only truly comes to life with the Hand of God Himself. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit alive and active in the glove that is our lives. That filling of an empty glove allows movement and work and action. He is the fingers that touch others through us. He is the palm that holds the tears and burdens of others through us. The hand that extends blessing and healing. The hard-working hands of a carpenter, stained by blood, scarred by love that cup around the face of a hurting, broken soul.
But the glove of me needs to be emptied of anything less than the Hand itself. No “prosthesis” of my own making. No finger-shaped substitutes that take up space. Fully available and open to the full Hand of God.
For weeks (and if I look closely, much longer than that!) God has been “emptying” my gloves. Shaking out the residual crumbs of very old fear, selfishness and pride. The necessary pain of making room for all of Who He is and what He wants to do. There have been encounters too sacred to truly explain and too beautiful for words. Gut wrenching ripping and soul soothing comfort. Experiences of spiritual reality in vividly physical ways. Ways that forever have changed me and my way of thinking. First hand glimpses of eternity and the very real presence of a very intimate God.
My glove is spent. Weak with wonder. Limp with love.
Empty. Soft. Pliable. And ready for the Hand of the One I so love.
Lord Jesus, do Your thing, all and whatever that may be…
John 3:30 – He must increase, but I must decrease.
John 15:4-5 – Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
Romans 8:6 – …the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace;
1 John 2:27 – But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit–just as it has taught you, remain in him.
