Lift Your Hands, Lift Your Eyes

Lift your hands, lift your eyes.....
Sounds like something a baby or toddler does so easily, doesn't it?  When they need something, need someone, they don't think about it so much, they just lift their eyes and lift their hands so you can pick them up and meet their need. 

But do I do it easily?  Nope!!  

When my toddler is upset and I'm frustrated with her, one of the best cures is to just lift her up and appreciate how little she is, though she isn't a baby.   It cures my frustration, most of the time, and it cures her insecurities, most of the time. 

But, it's a very childish thing to do, isn't it, to want to be picked up? 
Or is it?  I guess we're trained, as children, to not need picking up or comforting or helping, because our parents are trying to instill independence in us.  I do wonder how much of that is for the parent's benefit or convenience, not the child's.  And it's hard, as a parent, if your child is needy, sick, whingy, or not inclined to be independent when they could be.   It's tiring, frustrating, inconvenient, annoying and more besides. 

Is that why we learn, as children, adolescents, young adults, to be 'strong', independent, to contain our emotions, suppress our emotions, hide our struggles, to find our own solutions to problems, to feel guilty for even having them, feel guilty for not knowing, not understanding, not being smarter, for making a mess, for not being quicker, more able, less sensitive.  Is that why we learn not to lift our eyes and our hands?  
As a daughter and as a mother, I can answer yes to all these, sadly.

And so, these lyrics are some of my favourites. 

Lift your hands, lift your eyes
In the storm is where you’ll find Me
And where you are, I’ll hold your heart
I’ll hold your heart
Come to Me, find your rest
In the arms of the God who wont let go

It has ministered to me, many times, because when I lift my eyes and my hands, literally, to Him, I am helped because I have asked for it, not because I have to deserve it or analyse why I should need it.  I am helped because I have come to the throne of mercy and grace, I have come to Him whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light, I have come to Him who abounds in grace.   And when I lift my hands and my eyes to Him, I am able to allow others to ask the same of me and to find some  help when they lift their hands and their eyes. 

This is another verse from that song:

If your eyes are on the storm
You’ll wonder if I love you still
But if your eyes are on the cross
You’ll know I always have and I always will

So can you - lift your hands, lift your eyes - to Him?  He's waiting.  

The lyrics are from the song, Just Be Held, by Casting Crowns. 


Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.  Hebrews 4:16

Linking up with Kate Motaung at Five Minute Friday, a writing party held every Friday, where today's prompt word is 'lift'. 

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