Whose hands?

DOES the future seem uncertain to you? Does the jurisdiction of your affairs seem to have been taken out of your hands by the course of events? A sure remedy is to turn to God and put yourself and your affairs into His hands. In the Bible, the Preacher declared after deep consideration that ``the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God.'' 1 Perhaps our basic misconception is to suppose that our own hands are sufficient, that we can do without divine help.

Christ Jesus gave an unparalleled example of putting oneself and everything one does into God's hands. He did this in his nights of prayer, in his meeting with people, in his healing work. He said, ``The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.'' 2

Is it presumptuous for us to expect to be able to follow Jesus' example? Not when we begin to realize that in truth we are all offspring of God, reflecting Him as His image. Indeed it would be more presumptuous to think we could do things of ourselves when Jesus said that he couldn't.

I once discovered something of this at a time of transition in my career. The only way forward that I could see failed to open up, and this forced me to put myself and my future into God's hands more unreservedly than ever before. During that week three completely new avenues of work opened up unsought, which together gave a new direction to my career with far greater interest and usefulness than my own way could have produced.

God's hands represent righteous judgment, wisdom, strength, love. Who wouldn't want to feel that he is in the care of divine Love, impelled by the one Mind, certain of the unfolding order of Principle? Does reluctance to acknowledge man's dependence on God stem from the demand this makes to give up the beguiling delusion of human self-sufficiency?

Or perhaps the protest comes, ``Isn't this just a way of opting out of my own responsibilities, a kind of wishful thinking that expects everything to come right without any effort on my part?''

Certainly our effort to act in accord with God is indispensable. But we need to recognize the genuine source of all ability and of all good. Where do righteousness and wisdom and other spiritual qualities come from? We can't generate them ourselves and shouldn't try to take personal credit for them. When we find ourselves expressing them, this is evidence of our unity with God.

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes: ``Christian Science refutes everything that is not a postulate of the divine Principle, God. It is the soul of divine philosophy, and there is no other philosophy. It is not a search after wisdom, it is wisdom: it is God's right hand grasping the universe,--all time, space, immortality, thought, extension, cause, and effect; constituting and governing all identity, individuality, law, and power.'' 3

As we better understand God's total control, every aspect of our lives will be benefited. There's nothing nebulous about the grasp of ``God's right hand.'' It's a strong, reassuring embrace. And relying on it isn't doing nothing. It's doing everything we have to do with much better motivation and direction. And this takes care of the future as well as the present. 1 Ecclesiastes 9:1. 2 John 5:19. 3 Miscellaneous Writings, p. 364.