In The Right Hand
August, a month that starts us thinking about the coming of Autumn. Maybe it is the dry and the heat that makes us relish the thought of cooler days. Or maybe it is a time that sees schools starting, bringing the promise of Friday Night Lights and that pastime called football. Maybe it is getting us prepared for mornings with just a tad of a cool touch that stirs the slumbering strings of a hunting trip across fields ripe for the harvest and we relish the thought of our ancestors that set the pattern for us. We are at a time when a lot of girls and boys and young women and men will be starting a new year at school. And for all of these students the “new year” brings the stress associated with dealing with an unknown ingredient. Most of these students will welcome the challenge, though they may experience a feeling of trepidation. I see an analogy of the challenge these students will experience and my Mom’s biscuit making! I am sure she had to wonder if everything would work out, just as students wonder about their “new year.” Yes, she knew how to make biscuits, but Mammy left nothing to chance. Her day would start early, usually before daylight and when she had the coffee ready, she poured a cup, sat at the table with her Bible open to her reading for the day and said a prayer to her Lord, asking that He guide her through the day. You see, Mammy’s biscuits were really good, because one of her main ingredients was “the touch of the Master’s Hand.” Yes, her prayer time was one of the ingredients that she always used. In the same way, students. teachers, and school officials might find a smoother start to their school year if they
let their stress and worries be touched by the Master’s Hand. If they would find the time to have a quiet moment and ask God to prepare their path, to guide them along the way. My prayer for all students, teachers, and school officials is to find a moment in their day to get quite, thank our Lord for their blessings, and pray for “the touch of the Master’s Hand” to help them make good decisions and to guide their paths. This poem is not about biscuit making or starting to school, but in anything you do, you are never wrong when you start out by putting the current situation in “The Right Hand!”
In The Right Hand
We run acrost that ol’ fiddle in a box of Great Granpa’s stuff.
Drawed the bow acrost those strings, an’ that sound was mighty tuff! Figgered it might need tunin’ afore ary song could be played.
So we shook the dust off of it.
That bow was purt near decayed. We trimmed the loose ends a bit, which made it look some better.
Then we twisted them knobs both ways, ‘til we got them ol’ strings tighter.
They shore squeaked an’ them strings stretched some.
Did not help that sound none atall!
When Papa drawed that bow acrost ‘em, that box shore let out a squall!
Then that drifter came ridin’ up, hopin’ to get hisself a meal.
Papa wallered that bow aroun’ just to hear that fiddle squeal.
That ol’ gent jest sat there wide eyed, listenin’ to that turrible sound.
Papa looked up an’ give him a nod, an’ bid him step off to the ground. He asked Papa if it’d be okay if he tried his hand with that bow.
Then reached to take that fiddle, an’ his eyes was jest aglow.
He held that fiddle plumb tenderly, as he placed it ‘neath his chin.
Plucked a string to hear its sound, an’ then he did it twict again.
He took a puff, there on his smoke, an’ reverently closed his eyes.
Then drawed that bow acrost them strings… the sound he made shore took the prize! The music, that the drifter made, while he drawed that bow along.
Made Heaven smile at that sweet sound, ‘twas fair as an angels song.
Papa could only make it squall; the drifter’s touch made sweet sound.
An’ so it is, in our own life, ‘til in Jesus’ love we are found.
Love has a special quality, an’ we might come to understand, when we let our way be guided by the touch of the Master’s Hand.
© Ol’ Jim Cathey Pray for our schools and all administrators, teachers, students, and parents!
God Bless each of you and God Bless America!