April 4, 2023 Blog Post
“Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10b NKJV).
Grandpa’s Hand!
It was a mild, late fall morning during what was known throughout the South when I was a child as, “hog-killing” time. On the woodpile behind our house, a big black cast iron pot filled with water was boiling, and a scaffold was erected to hamstring the lifeless pigs after the hair was removed from the boiling pot. This meat, along with the bed of potatoes buried in the soil, would provide sustenance for us through the winter and spring.
As a toddler, two, going on three years of age, I curiously scuffled playing around the woodpile, absorbing sights, sounds, and distinctive smells of that accompanied hog-killing time. While the “giants”, my father at 6 feet, 3 inches, his father (Grandpa), and my big brother Jesse, Jr. were busy doing the work, I ambled onto a double sheet of old roofing tin stretched out on the woodpile. I slipped and fell backward cutting a large gash in the rear left side of my head as I hit a sharp part of the stiff tin. Blood quickly covered my head and face.
But Grandpa scooped me up in his hands, hoisted me onto his shoulder, and took me into the kitchen to Mom. Sitting high above the earth, I quickly forgot about the pain and the blood on my face. I was safe! My eyes beamed with laughter. When Mom saw my bloody head, she was shocked! But noticing the bright smile on my face as Grandpa’s large right hand held me securely on his shoulder, she too was quickly comforted.
Grandpa was the patriarch of our family. He was our pastor and head founded our church, Royal Light, in 1946. He had been born the same year that Booker T. Washington made his famous speech at the Atlanta Cotton Exposition (1895) which led to Washington being heralded as the national leader of the “Negro” people. Grandpa, like Washington, was a natural leader. He purchased two farms totaling almost 200 acres, which are still owned by our family today. He loved and served God faithfully. He loved his family, the church, and others and we felt safe in his presence.
Now you can surely anticipate that you will hit some rough places and some snags in life. You may even get “cut and bloodied” by people, situations, obstacles, and what may seem like really tough breaks at times. But we have someone who is always there to pick us up and uphold us with His powerful “righteous right hand.” And in His hands, we are safe! Nothing can pluck us out of His hands. We may have some scars like Jesus after the cross. I still have the mark that the sharp tin made on my head when I was two, although it can only be seen if my head is shaved. But I knew I was safe in Grandpa’s hands. No matter what is going on around us or what happens to us, we are always secure in God’s hands!