Happy Friday, everyone!

You know, when we speak about the hands of God, it isn’t meant to anthropomorphize Him, but rather it’s a way of describing the different ways that He works. As His people, we’ve learned to see the hand that gives salvation through preaching, through forgiveness. It’s through Jesus, as Luther writes, “When the called ministers of Christ deal with us by His command. This is as valid and certain as if Christ our Lord dealt with us Himself.”

So in church, we are seeing the hand of God that works all of these things through Word and Sacrament. And it’s true. That hand really matters a lot to us as sinners who are in need of salvation. God works that salvation for us through the Word, through the Sacraments, through Christ alone.

That’s where faith is given, that’s where sins are forgiven, and that’s where eternity is secured. But if that is all that we see, then everything else can become dismissed as just the world. Things like showing up, helping, listening, caring—these are good things, but they become not God’s work to us. The rest is often treated as merely human, as if showing up to care with ordinary things could simply not be the work of God.

And so, the other hand of God is missed. God works through His right hand and through His left. Through His right hand, He gives forgiveness, life, and salvation. Through His left, He provides daily bread, orders the world, and serves the neighbor through ordinary vocations in life. The psalmist wrote it this way: “The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food in due season. You open Your hand. You satisfy the desire of every living thing.” (Psalm 145:15)

That’s God’s hand that feeds, that shelters, that comforts, that shows up—not to save the soul in that moment, but to care for the person; not to replace the Gospel, but to serve the neighbor alongside the Gospel; not to be confused with Christ, but to reflect His mercy.

Luther went on to talk about the fact that God wears masks: ordinary things, ordinary people, ordinary acts of care. Bread on the table, a voice that listens, a presence that stays. You see, just because something is not the means of grace does not render it meaningless. Not everything saves, but that does not mean it does not serve. And when we forget that, we can begin clenching the Gospel with such a tight fist that we lose the open hand of mercy.

But God works with both hands. The right hand gives salvation. The left hand gives daily bread. The right hand delivers forgiveness. The left hand delivers care. The right hand brings eternal peace. The left hand brings temporal provision. And both matter—not equally, but truly. And so, we hold them together in the right order. We never confuse them. We never replace one with the other.

So, we dare not deny what God is doing just because it doesn’t look like preaching. In fact, as one hymn reminds us: “Let none hear you idly saying, there is nothing I can do, while the multitudes are dying and the Master calls for you. Take the task He gives you gladly. Let His work your pleasure be. Answered quickly, when He calls you: here am I. Send me. Send me.”

So, as you move into this weekend, take time to notice both hands of God at work—in the pulpit and through His people, in the Word and throughout the world. Not single-handed, but both.

Prayer
Lord Jesus, keep me anchored in Your Word and confident in Your promises. Guard me from confusion and from mistaking my word for Yours, or ignoring the ways that You are at work in me. Teach me to trust fully in the salvation that You alone give through Your Word and Sacrament, and send us freely to serve our neighbor, to show mercy, to be present where there is need. Use what we say and how we live to reflect Your care in this world, so that in all things Your Gospel is clear, Your mercy is seen, and Your name is known.In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

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