You can tell a lot about people by looking at their hands. Your hands are a road map of where you’ve been and what you’ve dedicated your life to. Have you built useful things out of wood or metal? Have you buried your hands in the earth, bringing forth food, flowers, and trees? Have you created masterpieces with paint, clay, fabric, words, or music? Have your hands cleaned up after messy children or bandaged wounds or held the hands of the dying? Are they crisscrossed with scars? Have they healed broken bones and broken hearts?

To Aristotle, the hand was the “tool of tools.” Hands signify strength, power, generosity, and protection. Your hands can defend a nation, a city, or a neighborhood. They can provide food and shelter. They can fend off Satan himself.

Jesus’ hands tell a remarkable story. A puncture wound in each speaks of the ultimate sacrifice, of the grace, mercy, and forgiveness that only Heaven can offer. God’s hands are so big and powerful that they hold the entire world—and so tender that they hold every tear you’ve cried.

What do your hands say about you?