Look at His Hands

God willing, a small team and I will be making a mission trip to Cambodia before the end of this year.  Our goal is to meet some of the practical needs of the people and spread the Gospel.  We have coordinated our trip with small teams from the U.S. and Mexico.  One role of our team is to provide reading glasses for those who need them.  It is our fervent desire God will give the people spiritual sight as well.  The field is ready for a bountiful harvest.  I recently bought Killing Fields Living Fields by Don Cormack, an enlightening portrait of the history of the church in Cambodia.  Though glasses are common in much of the world, the history of Cambodia provides a chilling perspective:  if a person was seen wearing glasses or even owning a pair after the Khmer Rouge gained power in 1975, that person would be killed as an "enemy."  All those considered intellectuals or those who had years of schooling were ferreted out and killed, along with monks, Christians, prostitutes, leaders, including the old, young, and infirm.

As I read the book (almost halfway through), it is impossible for me to imagine the depth of suffering the people of Cambodia endured.  Those who did the killing must have been as haunted as the hunted.  What hopelessness!  What helplessness!  Even though they faced death, the Christians had a unshakable hope beyond this world in Jesus Christ.  Their future was not governed through fate, reincarnation, or their merits, but the blood of Jesus which provided them a certain entrance into heaven.  Satan has done his best to eradicate the church of Christ, but he has remained unsuccessful.  Praise God that Christ's sacrifice was not in vain for the people of Cambodia!

I came across lyrics from a song the believers in the Cambodia church sang on page 151 which touched my heart deeply.  Thinking about what the church in Cambodia has endured, it is a powerful message for the largely comfortable, tepid church today.  The words read:

By and by, when I look at his hands,

Beautiful hands, nail-riven hands,

By and by when I look at his hands

I'll wish I had given him more.

More, so much more,

More of my life than I e'er gave before,

by and by when I look at his hands,

I'll wish I had given him more.

Have you looked at those hands?  The Khmer Rouge would routinely examine the hands of men and women.  If a man had soft hands - clearly not hands which had laboured long hours daily in a field - that man would have his brains bashed out in a killing field.  I must look at my hands!  Are my hands worn from labouring for Christ's sake, the One who was pierced for my iniquities and wounded for my transgressions?  Should the Khmer Rouge examine Christ's hands, they would see the hands of a Saviour who died so they might live.  Jesus died for all sinners who will repent and trust in him:  doctors, labourers, monks, children, politicians, drunkards, cold-blooded murderers, artists, prostitutes, truck drivers, and on.  Jesus died for me and he has died for you.  Look at the hands of Jesus again.  What do you see?  I see love and life for you and me.