Day 30: Put Your Hand in the Hand

I rarely honor throwback Thursday, but I thought this song would be appropriate.  My parents sing it sometimes - and I'll let Joan Baez sing it today.  It is called Put Your Hand in the Hand.  I am only familiar with the chorus and the first verse.  The verse goes like this:

Every time I look into the Holy Book I wanna tremble
When I read about the part where a carpenter cleared the temple
For the buyers and the sellers were no different fella's than what I
professed to be
And it causes me shame to know I'm not the gal that I should be

I like the reference to Jesus clearing the temple.  That is a story from the Bible you don't soon forget.  In the second chapter of John, Jesus is turning over tables, scattering coins.  It never describes Him to be yelling, but you can tell that His words were delivered emphatically.  Jesus is upset - angry even.  The first time I heard this story, I remember being bewildered.  Jesus got angry?  Seeing our savior, our ultimate role model get angry seems unsettling.  But in some ways, I have found it to be comforting.

Jesus was human.  He was as much human as He was divine.  That isn't easy to explain, but both of those things are important.  Jesus was human.  Jesus wept.  Jesus felt the things that we feel.  He had friends and family that He loved.  Jesus got frustrated.  He was honest about the way that He felt.  He was always honest with us.  God shows us that He knows our hearts through Jesus - through a savior that experienced the same emotions that we do.  

At the end of the verse, it talks about buyers and sellers.  I know that I was in the temple that day - not literally, but some days I get caught up in that mentality.  I overlook the fact that I am surrounded by buyers and sellers.  That we are all not the people we should be.  And because of that Jesus has a relationship with each one of us.  He knows that there is work to be done in all of our lives.  We often forget that, and forget to give grace to one another.  We all experience pain, hurt, frustration and any other emotion you can name. We are all broken, and all working with God to grow.  

~SP