Praying Hands and Tractors
“Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at His disposition, and listening to His voice in the depth of our hearts.” ― Mother Teresa
Hello, my long-lost friends! My bad, not you. Since the weather turned welcoming, I suppose that you, like me, have turned your attention to the wonderful world of the great outdoors. It is actually true that being in and amid nature’s greenery and flowers and trees tweaks our brains and opens a much different area of it. Unclogging our stuffy winter survival brains causes switches in our cranium to flip! I love my indoor life because I always have an urge to think and write. But once I started spending time in my yard, my brain followed. Outdoor thinking is different.
I love a fresh-mown lawn. This year, instead of hiring the mowing out, I decided to mow it myself, which led me to buy a used tractor mower. I got a good deal on a used unit and I was very excited! When I’m riding up and down my field of green, I feel like… SO special! It is a gobsmacking experience!
It took a bit of practice to master the ride. Early on, I mowed over a large rock that tore up the blade. However, the rock met its match as the blade tore it asunder! The mower still cut the grass if I lowered the blade, so on I went. Every time I went out, I’d take a chance to mow another little area I hadn’t covered. Then, one day, one sad day, I got stuck on an incline. The back of the tractor was facing uphill, so I threw the gear into reverse until… the mower… stopped dead. I turned the key- dead. Uh-oh! Key-nothing! My favorite yard toy was broken, and it put me in an obsessively panicked mood. Of course, I perseverated over how to solve this most discomforting vexation. The weight of it consumed me.
Thanks for reading my story. Now you are probably wondering what this has to do with praying hands. Here is the tie-in.
As a Christian, I have spent my older years seeking constant awareness of God. When I am mindful, I feel God as an aura enveloping me in His fullness. You don’t have to be a Christian to take wisdom from my thoughts. If you believe in God and being spiritual, this might be a sentiment you will appreciate. When my favorite thing, my tractor, became an issue, I felt that I was a chasm away from the Lord. That exasperated me! Suddenly, I had a vision of Praying Hands.
I imagined that one hand was me, and one hand was God. During prayer, there was nothing coming between us. With palms touching securely, my thoughts were stayed on God. But THEN… my broken mower interrupted our Holy reverie. Look at what happened! My hands felt separated with a broken tractor filling the void. God and I lost contact!
Everyone is occasionally disspirited by the weighty things of life. SO many things come between us and God. It leaves feeling helpless or angry. We are at least inconvenienced! Yet, when we are close to God, and our life revolves around the solid relationship signified by palms touching, we can always return to the core of our life- our spiritual tie to God.
If you will, hold your hands in the position of the picture above. Now think of what things might be occupying the space between your palms. The Lord knows that in this life, many things vie for our attention. You are probably familiar with the expression, “Let go and let God.” Imagine releasing the clutter in the space, trusting God to take care of it. As you unbind each care, your hands incrementally move together until you are finally palm to palm. That’s what it means to be close to God.
As these thoughts rolled forth, I could feel myself settling down and even laughing at myself a little. I remembered not to allow “things” to dominate my thoughts. I remembered that “God is good. God is always good.” In a close relationship with Him, we can experience true peace. There will always be troubles, but we can always choose peace.
I am still waiting for my tractor to return from the shop, but in that interim, I have turned to other resources to keep my yard fit and trim. The bonus is, I had time to clear out the clutter inside my house! Peace of God!
“Let’s all declutter. Shall we?”