Love Handles

 

The Assist Grip or Grab Handle – that’s the proper name for the handle above the window you might grab onto while riding on the passenger side of the car when things get a little shaky.

Maybe you’re riding with a new driver, or traffic just got crazy or maybe it’s just become a habit, a convenient place to put your hand.

The internet had some more colorful nicknames for it, too. But you get the general idea that when you panic, that might be what you grab for.

While riding on a rollercoaster, you might grab at the lock bar that secures you in your seat.

When not feeling well, we might reach for a grab bar on the side of our shower.

While in the midst of various adventures in your lifetime, you’ve probably reached for something in hopes it would bring you a sense of security. You may have been safe all along, but grabbing onto something stable can generally make us feel more secure.

Stick with me here as I diverge briefly. If you’re as old as I am, you’ll recall that back in the 70s we had a term for the skin at your waist that didn’t bring you joy. Whether you could “pinch an inch” or “grab a slab” it was generously called your love handles. I’ve coined a new meaning for that phrase.

Getting back to the subject at hand, what do you reach out for when things go awry?

While no, I don’t envision God as a chubby guy, when I reach out to Him in prayer, (especially when my heart wants to panic about something) I grab for my “love handle” – that being the hand of God that connects me to His heart.

In a world that can appear to have no certainty it’s important to have something that can stabilize your heart.

Some reach for colorful metaphors (as Spock so cleverly put it), even shouting them out for the world to hear.

But some of us call on the God Who created us and placed us in this world – the God that already has the plan for our lives written out in a book, the God Who knows how it all ends. (Jeremiah 29:11 and Psalm 139)

Lifting my voice to the God of heaven connects me to the God Who now lives in my heart, I lay hold of that love handle that brings me peace and security, my ‘assist grip’ – my ‘grab handle’, or whatever YOU call it.

There’s an old phrase/song that comes to mind now, “He’s as close as the mention of His Name – Jesus.”

Prayer is conversation with God, it’s communion with His Holy Spirit, it’s a melding of our hearts. Of course, it brings us peace and stabilization, it centers our focus on the Problem Solver, instead of the problem itself.

When the road is rocky and the ride is bumpy, reach out for His hand.

When life feels good and right, snuggle into the palm of His hand and rest easy, my friend.

It’s become a convenient place to put my trust.

You remember the old song, sing it with me.

“Put your hand in the hand of the Man that stills the waters. Put your hand in the hand of the Man that calms the seas…..”

Love Handles - with care.

(Painting by Michele King, the Hands of God reaching my family.)