I don’t think my hands have ever been so clean.
As the day ends, I remember washing them in six different sinks and stopping for hand sanitizer at least 10 times. I washed them again before I sat at at this keyboard, and I’m the only one who uses this keyboard. A bottle of hand sanitizer sits next to the keyboard, and my anti-bacterial hand wipes are in a box below this desk. My vigilance includes protecting me from myself.
The corona virus has pushed us into an age of accelerated hand-washing, but my friend Pastor Tracey believes it can be an age of accelerated prayer.
Tracey, who is also a dentist, has joined other health care professionals in endorsing hand-washing for at least 20 seconds frequently throughout the day.
As we wash our hands, she suggests we spend our 20 seconds in prayer. If we each wash our hands every hour, and stay awake for 16 hours, how many prayers would be lifted? How many people could we lift in prayer? How much praise and thanks could we lift? How often could we ask for peace and patience and light?
I searched for scripture involving hand-washing and found this passage from James 4: “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners … “
James, who I came to know in a class taught by Dr./Pastor Tracey, was speaking metaphorically, but his metaphor suddenly has life. Can we draw near to God as we cleanse our hands? This sinner now sees opportunity waiting at the sink.
Photo by Stephanie Schupska