Spiritual Antennas

I grew up in an environment where having "holy hands" was always a point of ridicule and jokes. "They only do it to draw attention to themselves".  "They look like they are at a rock concert". Those kinds of people were looked down upon and made fun of. Then I got a little older and there were moments I felt like lifting my hand but I always suppressed it. Now, I go to a church where it's normal for people to do it. I watch them. They are smiling, sometimes dancing a little. I can see in their faces that they are not thinking about themselves. I see pure joy in their eyes. They are thinking about God and what He's done for them. It's touching. It encourages me and makes me smile to see someone show outward affection to God in such a public way, without shame or embarrassment. I begin thinking about this idea of public affection. What if I had a child and was not allow to show any kind of emotion towards him in public. I restrained myself from smiling at him or putting an arm around him or embracing him. It would look so cold and people would wonder if I even loved the child in the first place. We're like that in church sometimes when we sing with a stone face and restrain ourselves from raising our hand in worship. Love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, but don't show it. Don't become emotional. Don't show any kind of public affection towards our Lord and Saviour. 

I raised my hand in church once. It took about all the courage I had. I was just going to raise it a little but when I started it went up all the way. It was as though I was set free. I felt like I was worshiping not only with my words but my entire being. I'm frustrated with myself for not doing it more often. It's because of pride that I don't. I'm still worried about what other people will think. It's something I'm working on.

My ten year old daughter asked me about it. She said, "Sometimes people raise their hands when they are singing and sometimes I want to, but I don't know if it's okay."  We had such a great conversation about it. She does it without any reservation and it gives me courage.