Grazing Grace

WHAT IS IN YOUR HAND?

DISCOVERING THE HIDDEN POTENTIAL IN ORDINARY THINGS

BY GREG A. LANE

There is a music stand at church that I had been using for several months to hold my guitar chord sheets. I could fit two sheets comfortably on the stand and, if worse came to worst, I could squeeze a third one in as well. Considering that I usually have at least six music sheets to spread out, though, the music stand was always a little bit inadequate for my liking. But I continued to use the stand, because there weren’t any others available for me to use. One day, I had more than six music sheets that needed to fit on the stand. So, with a slight hint of frustration in my voice, I asked, “Is there a wider music stand around here that I can use? This one’s way too small.” Someone replied, “No, there aren’t any others, but that stand you’re using right now slides out to become twice as wide.” I looked down at the stand I had been using for well over three months. I had always wondered why it had the slit in the middle of it. NOW I KNEW! I pulled the two outer edges of the stand outward, and it expanded to twice its original width. I felt completely ignorant. I could have been using this stand the way it was intended to be used months earlier, but I was completely unaware of how versatile it was until I got a revelation of it firsthand. Isn’t that the way life goes? You’re doing the very best you can with what you have in front of you, only to find out that what you’ve been given has greater purpose and meaning than you ever imagined. Unless someone comes along and opens your eyes to the truth you’ve overlooked, you could actually go to your grave missing out on the wonderful blessing you’ve had right in front of you all along … the marvelous potential in the thing you thought was ineffective or deficient. Moses got a similar revelation from God one day as

The photo above shows the music stand, set up in the way I had been using it for three straight months. I was oblivious to its full potential. Little did I know that the music stand opened up to accommodate twice the number of music sheets I was accustomed to.

he stood before the burning bush in the wilderness. Doubting his own ability to be the “Deliverer of Israel” God had destined him to be, he asked God, “What if they won’t believe me or listen to me? What if they say, ‘The LORD never appeared to you’?” (Exodus 4:1). God’s simple reply was, “What is in your hand?” Moses answered, “A shepherd’s staff.” God said, “Throw it on the ground.” When Moses did as God requested, his staff became a snake. Moses had carried that staff with him for four decades, completely oblivious to the fact that God would use it as a tool by which he would bring deliverance to the children of Israel.

Using that simple shepherd’s staff, Moses performed wonders and miracles in the land of Egypt. Not only was it used to call down plagues in Egypt, Moses also used it to part the waters of the Red Sea, and to make water flow from the rock in the wilderness to quench the thirst of the children of Israel in their wilderness journey. Years earlier, Moses had used that staff to gather sheep in the wilderness of Midian. He had leaned upon it when he was tired after a long, hard day of work. He had probably used it for a number of menial tasks during his 40 years of shepherding his fatherin-law’s herds. But, one day, God opened Moses’ eyes to the power and potential in that seemingly insignificant shepherd’s staff. I heard a story about a poor, widow woman at a church who had a close relationship with the Lord in prayer. She wanted to be able to give financially to help young couples in her church, but her poverty

prevented it. One day, though, a God-inspired thought came to her. She went through all of the magazines and newspapers that she had collected over the past year and clipped out all of the money-saving coupons she could find. She then categorized them into food products, diapers and formula, and toiletry items. She filled envelopes with several hundred dollars worth of coupons each and gave them to young couples in her church as a gift, to help them out financially during their times of strained finances. She discovered the value and potential in something that she had sitting right in front of her … something that she had most likely overlooked before. God’s simple reply was, Some people complain about the “little” bit that “What is in your hand?” Moses answered, “A shepherd’s staff.” they have in life. They look at others who have more and say, “If I only had what they had, I could be successful in life.” But, the truth is, God has given each one of us many things in our lives to help us become successful. All too often, however, we’re completely ignorant of the power and potential in the things He’s put right in front of us. What could you possibly do with the jawbone of a donkey? Samson defeated one thousand Philistines with one. What could you do with five loaves of bread and two small fish? Ask a little boy who gave his sack lunch to Jesus so He could feed 5,000 people. You’d be surprised what can be done with the seemingly insignificant things that lay in front of you right this very moment! So, today, I’ll ask you the same question that God asked Moses when he stood in front of the burning bush … “What is in your hand?”