Empty Handed

Empty Handed

What is it that you are carrying?  Are your hands empty, providing room to receive what is offered to you . . . or are the full enough that you don't have much room to hold much else?

And what is it exactly that you hold there?  How did it get into your hands?  How tightly are you holding on to it, or does it seem sticky and you can't seem to shake it loose.  What we hold in our hands impacts our ability to receive.  What have we acquired from the world around us?  And not just "the world" around us, but from the people closest to us?

Even if you can argue that it is difficult, if not impossible, for us to interact with those around us without picking up a few things, it is another thing to cling to those things, to hold them, to grasp them.  Sometime we don't even realize the extent to which our fingers are tightly closed around things we might better let go of.

Ezra had the joy of being the prophet called to the Israelite nation as they came out of exile in Babylon. After their release from bondage, there was a temple and a nation to rebuild. There was, however, one major issue. They did not return empty handed. In fact, they were quite loaded. Could this be the case with us as well? Are we holding on to a certain reality as we approach the throne of God or are we coming empty handed?  This is what Pastor Fidi explores with us as he invites us to reflect on the experience recorded for us in Ezra 9.  If you would like to listen to the sermon again, or perhaps for the first time, you can access our sermon library by clicking here.