Love’s Cradle

Photo is courtesy of Christopher Powers at www.fullofeyes.com.

Job 12:10 (ESV): 10 In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind.

The care with which he held, no cradled, the sphere spoke of the depth of passion and value he placed up on it.  It rested in the palm of his hand.  His fingers gently but firmly wrapping the sphere in a gentle but guarded embrace.  His fingers moved gently over it’s surface, stroking it.  His grip constant.  I got the sense that NEVER would he loose his grip, dropping it.  Never would another wrestle it from his possession.

I looked upon the strength of this hand.  The fine lines of the lean and muscled flesh flexed as he maintained this careful embrace.  The calloused tips of his fingers revealed the evidence of labor, skilled and proficient.  Glancing up his forearm, I had no doubt the strength and might reflected there was a strength and might that was beyond my ability to overcome.  It was the kind of strength you valued when it was for you but feared when it was against you.  It was this strength that was now coming to bear fully on the protection and cherishing of this sphere within his hand. 

As I watched, I became filled with an odd sense of comfort and peace, of security and stability at the manner of this hand’s embrace.  Despite the strength present, a strength that could easily crush the sphere in his palm, there was an assurance that he would never do this. 

Even as the conviction resolved in my mind, his fingers rolled over the surface of the sphere.  Rolling towards the tips of his fingers, the sphere shifted off the center of his palm where it has been resting.  Still soundly in his grip, yet now shifted in position, the palm of his hand came into view.

I gasped.

A gaping hole stood, raw and jagged.  Light from the other side, the backside, of his hand, shone through.  And in that moment, I understood.  I glanced again at the sphere with new understanding and insight.  Even as my eyes fell upon it, it seemed to shimmer, to come into focus.  This was no mere sphere.  This was the planetary orb upon which all mankind lived.

Yanking my focus away and, for the first time, looking upon the face of the one whose hand held this orb, I beheld the face of my Savior, my Lord, My King, My God.  The look of love, grace, and devotion fixated there melted me.  I wept then.  Ugly wept.  What other response is there in the face of the one whose own life’s blood was spilt to purchase, protect, and sustain all created life?  This orb, this sphere, this planet held within his embrace WAS precious to Him!  It was purchased at the greatest cost!

And in that moment, I knew…I could never be more secure.  No matter what this life may bring, I knew. He would never lose his grip on me, on His own.

Peace and joy flooded my soul even as I feel to his feet and wept.

John 3:16 (ESV): 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.