He had the hands of a man,

grown from curled-up baby hands

to dirty, in-a-hurry boy hands

to hands that could wield

a hammer and nails;

—

hands obscured for thirty years

in seas of Jewish hands;

revealed—man-defying Teacher hands,

hands that could hold

and shelter and bleed;

—

hands, nearer with every breath,

to nail-intruded hands,

to weighed-with-the-sins-of-the-world hands,

the hands still moving,

washing dirt from feet.

—

His hands are the hands of God,

blameless, righteous, holy hands,

the died-and-lives-forever hands,

the hands that welcome

sinners into life.

.