Hand Print 3-2-15

Hand Print 3-2-15

I was eight years old in this encounter, and standing in the doorway that leads to the garden. My white dress had long sleeves that flared out around my hands, and covered them. The dress was constructed of heavy winter-weight fabric, but like always, I was barefoot. On my head was a crown of baby's breath and ivy, and around my neck was a golden locket with the word Beloved engraved on it. 

I put my right hand on the door frame and looked out over the garden where snow covered everything. It was so beautiful, the sun was beginning to set and the colors where bold and intense. I looked down at the snow and touched my toe to the snow and felt how cold it was. Pulling my foot back, I knelt down and placed my right hand in the snow, and pressed down enough to make an impression. I giggled when I pulled my hand back and saw that it was almost a perfect impression in the snow. I sat there a moment looked at my hand-print, then I looked around, I felt so small compared to everything around me.  

Then I heard someone coming up behind me. I turned to see who it was, and my heart was moved when I saw it was Jesus. I began to stand up, but I felt him place his hand on my shoulder and he knelt down next to me. He took his right hand and placed it over my hand-print in the snow.  His hand was much larger than mine. I could see the hole in his hand as he pressed it into the snow, and when he pulled it back, there were both our prints together. I wondered for a moment why my hand print was still there since he placed his over the top of mine. But then my attention was pulled to something else, I noticed the place where the hole in his hand was, in the middle of my hand print. 

He stood up, and so did I. I looked at the two prints in the snow and watched them slowly melt into one. Then the snow began to melt around the hand print and out away from it into the garden.  I stood there and watched It melt completely away from the entire garden. The tree's and grass still lush and green underneath the melted snow. I watched the sun began to disappear and the garden slowly become dark. 

Jesus took my hand and said, "Walk with me." So we walked out onto the patio. As we made our way to the waist high wall at the end of the patio I looked up and could see the stars, both bright and dim. Jesus stopped at the end of the stone patio, next to the stone wall and looked up, pointing to the sky he asked "Do you see the stars? I know every one of them." 

I looked around at the sky and asked "How can you know each one? There are so many of them." 

He looked down at me and smiled, "I created them. I created them with intention, with purpose, with life. I know every inch of each one; there is not a detail I have missed." He looked back up at the sky smiling. I stood there a moment trying to wrap my head around it and replied "That's a lot to try to remember!" 

Jesus knelt down and studied my face a moment, then said "Child. . .when you intentionally love someone, like I love you, it is hard to forget the very things that make you, you." He tucked my hair behind my ear and said "How could I ever forget that first breath you drew? The first song you sang? That giggle that made me smile?" His eyes filled with tears and he said "How could I ever forget the first time you reached back to me? or called my name? When you really love someone.(a tear fell down his face). . . You can't forget." 

In that moment my heart became so full of love, I wrapped my arms around his neck and held him tight. Jesus wrapped his arms around me he picked me up and held me tight. we both cried, but not out of sadness but love and joy. He kissed my head and cheek then whispered over and over "I love you so. . .so much."