My Hands

I was just sitting here looking at my hands resting on the keyboard while I was pondering on what I might write today.  They are starting to look a little older, not quite a smooth as they once were.  They've got some wear and tear on them.  That is a good thing.  There are experiences worn on these hands.  Experiences that have helped to shape them and my life.  These hands have worked a saw to clear brush from behind the Hawaii Temple.  These hands have been on fire at Camp Pupukea as a Boy Scout in Hawaii. These hands have held snow shovels and cleared snow to help elderly members of our ward in Carson City with Brother Reid and have wielded many a snow shovel everywhere else that required it.  These hands have picked up scissors and cut the front lawn of Brian Jeckels in Gelvandale, South Africa and shaved the heads of mental patients in a hospital outside of Queenstown, South Africa.  These hands have crafted toilets for crippled patients living in townships of Capetown, South Africa and pushed special needs children on swings and merry go rounds in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. These hands have cleared ruined belongings and ripped out sheet rock from homes destroyed by hurricane Katrina in Pascagoula, Mississippi.  These hands have been on lots of moves.  These hands have been laid on heads of friends and loved ones to give priesthood blessings.  These hands have held my precious babies and played with my children.  They have been dirty, they have been clean, they have been bloody, and swollen, and in pain. They have been healed. These hands have experienced much over the last 41 years, much that is good.  I am grateful for these hands.  Sure they look like baseballs with sausages hanging out of them but they allow me to experience much and to serve much and for that I am eternally grateful and find reason to rejoice.  Not that anything I have done is of any more importance than anything you have done.  These are just quick memories of things that have meant something to me.  Examine your hands, what have you done?  Something great to be sure.