Hand of God

Design drawing for stained glass window showing hand of God emerging from sky in triangle in mandorla frame for St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Essex Falls, New Jersey (from: https://picryl.com/media/design-drawing-for-stained-glass-window-showing-hand-of-god-emerging-from-sky)

The hand of God (Manus Dei) is used as a symbol of God the Father. It was virtually the only symbol for God used during the first eight centuries of the church. The hand symbolizes God's ownership of and providence for all of creation and comes from the many references to the "hand of God" in the Bible[1]. Also used in Art.

Used by Julian Lethbury in “The Mission of Jane” as a figure of speech to symbolize his fear of supreme that could interfere and prevent his adoptive daughter Jane from marrying Winstanley Budd.

The usage of the figures of speech, like “Sword of destiny” or “Hand of God” highlights the situation of Mr. Lethbury´s character, who, even being a man and has more freedom than the female characters of Edith Wharton fiction, is caught in the external circumstances of being the adoptive father with an aim to marry his daughter off the hands.

[1] Source