Lord Jesus, Take my Hand

For some odd reason, that phrase "Lord Jesus, take my hand" popped into my head during my prayers this morning. I have no idea why. But I have been thinking about the phrase and what it could mean for my own devotions and building up in faith. Here are a few of those thoughts:

To pray that phrase as a prayer, "Lord Jesus, take my hand", is to ask Jesus to do what we so often do with small children: take their hands. Maybe it reflects the child-like attitude we are to have towards God. Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." (Mark 10:15)

This made me think about what happens when we take a child's hand, what it means and why we do it. So, if we ask Jesus, "Lord Jesus, take my hand," what is it we are asking of him? I'm sure there are more, but here are at least three things:

1) We are asking him to guide us. When we take a child's hand, it is often to lead that little one through a crowd or to navigate a difficult path. When we ask Jesus to take our hand, we are asking for guidance through the difficult and rough places in life, and there are certainly plenty of those.

2) We are asking him to protect us. To take a person's hand is to keep them near. If you are holding hands, one can never stray far from the other. To hold the hand of a child is to protect them from danger, to prevent disaster like falling off a high place or wandering into a busy street. There are many dangerous places and situations in life. Some we can see and some we cannot, but God can see them all, and to ask Jesus to take our hand is to ask for protection from those dangers, both visible and invisible.

3) Finally, to take a hand is an expression of love. Lovers often hold hands for none of the above reasons, but only to feel the warmth and presence of the beloved. To touch the flesh, to feel the skin of another person is to closer to them, it is to create or extend an intimacy which we do not have with all people. That flesh-to-flesh connection is reserved for those with whom we feel closest.

There is no real point to all this - hence the title, "Random Thoughts," but I think that to envision or to imagine ourselves as so intimately connected to Christ that we can hold hands is a good thing. We can all use a greater degree of guidance, protection, and love, so perhaps a prayer such as, "Lord Jesus take my hand." will suffice.