hands and work

2 Chronicles 15:7
"Be ye strong therefore, and let not your hands be weak:  for your work shall be rewarded."

Recent discussion and thoughts on work prompted me to find a scripture about work.  I like this one because of the imagery of hands and the promise that our work will be rewarded.  When I think about work, I see hands.  I see my parents hands working: preparing meals, gardening, sewing, washing dishes, raking, feeding animals, folding clothes, cleaning, paying bills, cutting hair, wiping noses, changing diapers, helping with homework and science projects, fixing things, etc. etc.  So many things come to mind.  I'm trying to wear out my hands in the same way I saw my parents work and hoping that I'm teaching my children the value of work as well.  There's no place for weak hands around here.  When I look at my hands at the end of the day, I hope they are "stained" and calloused from hard work. 

The other thought that comes to mind is a song called "His Hands" that a friend (Giselle) used to sing so beautifully.  It talks about the Savior's hands.  Here's the lyrics: 

His hands
tools of creation
stronger than nations
power without end
and yet through them we find our truest friend
His hands
sermons of kindness
healing men's blindness
halting years of pain
children waiting to be held again

His hands would serve his whole life though
showing man what hands might do
giving, ever giving, endlessly
each day was filled with selflessness
and I'll not rest until I make up my hands what they could be
'til these hands become like those from galilee

His hands
lifting a leper
warming a beggar
calling back the dead
breaking bread, five thousand fed
His hands
hushing contention
pointing to heaven
ever free of sin
then bidding man to follow him

His hands would serve his whole life though
showing man what hands might do
giving, ever giving, endlessly
each day was filled with selflessness
and I'll not rest until I make up my hands what they could be
'til these hands become like those from galilee

His hands
clasped in agony
as he he lay pleading, bleeding in the garden
while just moments away
other hands betray him
out of greed, shameful greed
and then His hands
are trembling
straining to carry the beam that they'd be nailed to
as he stumbles through the streets
heading towards the hill on which he died
he would die
they take His hands, His mighty hands, those gentle hands
and then they pierce them, they pierce them
he lets them, because of love
from birth to death was selflessness
and clearly now I see him with His hands
calling to me
and though I'm not yet as I would be
he has shown me how I could be
I will make my hands like those from galilee

And a video: