I greet you in Jesus’ precious name, it is Sunday morning, the 5th of January, 2025, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a Thought for Today.

We go to Mark 16:18:

“They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

Can you imagine the hands of Jesus being laid upon you, my dear friend, to take away all your sickness, all your pain, all your suffering, all your fear and all your anxiety, those beautiful, beautiful hands. Of course, you know they will have a hole through them. They have been pierced by nails when the Lord was nailed to the cross for our sins, but what beautiful hands.

Early this morning I was repairing a fence the back of our garden, and because I'm a preacher now and not a farmer, I must confess, my hands are very soft. I was quite embarrassed. I just remember my dear old Dad. Man, he had hands like you can't believe. He was a blacksmith, and he used tongs and 14-pound hammers, standing next to that fiery furnace and heating up that steel and banging it. He had the most incredibly powerful hands, yet they were so gentle - I never once saw him try to break a man's hand. He would shake your hand and it was like it was in a vice. It was firm, it was secure! Hands, hands are so important.

I remember, one day, going to the chemist's shop and as I was paying for something I said to the lady, look at my hands. I've got hands and like a woman now that I don't farm actively anymore. She looked at me and she said, “Don't insult women's hands.”
Now, when I speak to farmers, I have to put my hands in my pockets because when they see those hands, they'll say those aren’t a farmers hands. But you know, on a serious note, the Lord tells us to lay our hands upon the sick and to pray for healing over them. To get a touch from the Lord is so beautiful and so precious. I love to stop and pray for somebody in the street and I will put my hand on their shoulder; sometimes I don't even pray and they start to weep. It's the love of Christ in us that people need to experience, so it doesn't matter whether your hands are strong or soft. 

I think of the hands of that incredible neurosurgeon, Dr. Carson, who had the gift of separating Siamese twins with one operation taking something like 48 hours. Those were hands of compassion and hands that are strong. Remember, folks, people love a handshake, they love a hug, and it doesn't matter whether your hands are rough, or whether they’re smooth but make sure they're always clean. My Dad had the cleanest hands of a man I've ever seen. He made sure that when he went out, his hands were clean. There might be rough and gnarled, but clean, and most of all filled with the love of Jesus.

Have a blessed day.
God bless you, and goodbye.