Hey y'all!
[Summary at the very bottom cuz I know not everyone has the time or attention span to read this.]
Yesterday we had a sister's study activity. Which basically meant wearing pajamas, talking about things we want to do differently, creating goals and eating cookies. Wow, being a missionary is the best.
As we discussed our lives as missionaries one sister commented on how she felt when she was in the temple, explaining how her white dress and everything was beautiful until she would look down at her hands.
This sister serves at the This Is The Place Monument, where missionaries dress as pioneers and help people learn about early Utah history and the way people lived in those times. This Sister is a blacksmith there and often gets scars and burns on her hands from the work and demonstrations she does.
When she is wearing a dress for church or while she is in the temple in her white gown she feels self conscious and perhaps sometimes even ashamed of her hands because of the scars.
As she expressed this to each of us I couldn't help but see the parallels to Jesus Christ.
My dear friend, Jesus, also has scars from his service. No one served quite like him. No one suffered quite like him.
President Thomas S. Monson, then Elder Monson, gave a talk entitled, “Hands” in this talk he speaks of the sanctity of hard working hands.
Of the Good Shepherd’s hands Elder Monson said, “This was the determined hand which drove from the temple the money changers. This was the loving hand that blessed little children. This was the strong hand that opened deaf ears and restored vision to sightless eyes. By this hand was the leper cleansed, the lame man healed—even the dead Lazarus raised to life. With the finger of this hand there was written in the sand that message which the winds did erase but which honest hearts did retain. The hand of the carpenter. The hand of the teacher. The hand of the Christ.”
It is a sacred privilege to be the Lord's hand as his service missionary. An honor even more for this sister who will forever look at her hands and find Christ. How sacred that her service should reflect the Savior’s.
“I think of his hands pierced and bleeding to pay the debt!
Such mercy, such love, and devotion can I forget? …
Oh, it is wonderful that he should care for me enough to die for me!
Oh, it is wonderful, wonderful to me!”
His hands are always stretched towards us. Accept his hand. Let him help you. Oh how he loves you. When Jesus looks down at his hands he thinks of you.
To this fellow missionary and representative of Christ, I humbly share, Psalm 24:3-4
“3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?
4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.”
Your hands are clean and you are worthy to enter the Lord’s house. Thank you for taking upon yourself the name of Jesus Christ. You are an exceptional representative of the Lord. However, I would kindly suggest that we find you some high quality, thick, leather gloves.
I hope all of our hands can be a little more like Christ's.
Still holding to the rod,
Sister Owens
Summary: Let us not be ashamed of the service we do in the Savior’s name. Celebrate those scars that make you more like Jesus Christ. Do more of what the Savior would do.
Sources
Hands
I Stand All Amazed
Psalm 24
