We Cannot Measure How You Heal

We cannot measure how you heal
Or answer every sufferer’s prayer
Yet we believe your grace responds
Where faith and doubt unite to care
Your hands, though bloodied on the cross
Survive to hold and heal and warn
To carry all through death to life
And cradle children yet unborn

Some Christian songs are positive and upbeat, speaking of God with strength and enthusiasm. Here we have a caring God who is involved in our weakness. We return to the Easter story… healing and suffering, hope and despair, life and death.

We remember the hands of Jesus, touching the unclean leper, welcoming small children, healing the sick, washing dirty feet… These hands, nailed to a cross, shown to doubting Thomas, feeding disciples on the beach… ‘Hands which shaped and saved the world’ return today, still healing, holding, serving and providing…

The pain that will not go away
The guilt that clings from things long past
The fear of what the future holds
Are present as if meant to last
But present too is love which tends
The hurt we never hope to find
The private agonies inside
The memories that haunt the mind

This song is intensely personal. It’s about my pain, guilt, fears and hurts. It’s easy to make out I’m OK. I come in honesty and humility, needing God’s help; my mind needs healing and mending, my crookedness needs straightening. This is me.

I don’t come alone. I come with others – and by our imperfect faith, through our doubts and tears, Jesus’ hands become our hands. Together we meet our God, giving and receiving love, care, peace, restoration and healing. This is church.

So, some have come who need your help
And some have come to make amends
As hands which shaped and saved the world
Are present in the touch of friends
Lord, let your Spirit meet us here
To mend the body, mind and soul
To disentangle peace from pain
And make your broken people whole