From the editors of Reader’s Digest comes this true and inspiring story:

When Mrs. Klein told her first graders to draw a picture of something for which they were thankful, she thought how little these children, who lived in a deteriorating neighborhood, actually had to be thankful for.  She knew that most of the class would draw pictures of turkeys or of bountifully laden Thanksgiving tables.  That was what they believed was expected of them.

What took Mrs. Klein aback was Douglas’s picture.  Douglas was so forlorn and likely to be found close in her shadow as they went outside for recess.  Douglas’s drawing was simply this: a hand.

A hand, obviously, but whose hand?  The class was captivated by his image.  “I think it must be the hand of God that brings us food,” said one student.

“A farmer,” said another, “because they grow the turkeys.”

“It looks more like a policeman, and they protect us.”  “I think,” said Lavinia, who was always so serious, “that it is supposed to be all the hands that help us, but Douglas could only draw one of them.”

Mrs. Klein had almost forgotten Douglas in her pleasure at finding the class so responsive.  When she had the others at work on another project, she bent over his desk and asked whose hand it was.

Douglas mumbled, “It’s yours, Teacher.”

Then Mrs. Klein recalled that she had taken Douglas by the hand from time to time; she often did that with the children.  But that it should have meant so much to Douglas…

Perhaps, she reflected, this was her Thanksgiving, and everybody’s Thanksgiving — not the material things given unto us, but the small ways that we give something to others.*

From the hand of God comes every good and perfect gift (James 1:17).

“For the LORD is the great God,
And the great King above all gods.
In His hand are the deep places of the earth;
The heights of the hills are His also.
The sea is His, for He made it;
And His hands formed the dry land.”
-- Psalm 95:3-5

Our salvation and the gift of eternal life is a gift from the hands of God, for Jesus, God’s Son, had nails driven through His hands and His feet onto the cross where He died for your sins and mine.  “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by His wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24 NIV).

God will save and give eternal life to those who place their faith and trust in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from their sins in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and are baptized (immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38).  God will continue to cleanse from sin those who continue to walk in the light of His Word (1 John 1:7-9).

How much does God love us?  Look at what His hands have done for us.

Won’t YOU accept His offer of salvation and eternal life on His terms?

-- David A. Sargent

* From “This Teacher’s Story Will MAKE Your Thanksgiving,” https://www.rd.com/true-stories/inspiring/thanksgiving-story/

David A. Sargent, Minister

Church of Christ at Creekwood 
1901 Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama  36695

Archived issues of Living Water can be viewed and accessed from our website at: www.creekwoodcc.org