Mosaic

Fingerprints

6 Comments

by Erwin McManus

6 Responses to “Fingerprints”

1. Ashley
   Jan 25th, 2007 at 3:13 pm

   About a month ago I was up all night being sick and in the middle of my pain that night I started talking to the Lord. You know how it is when you start making deals with Him, just so the pain will subside. But then I began to think of all the people who live in pain on a daily basis and just asking Him why He allowed it. And clear as day He said to me that I was to be His hands and feet to those people in pain. That we as believers are in fact the body of Christ and although we may not heal them the way He could, we can hold them, love them, dignify them, yet we wait for someone else to do it. I was reminded of this through “finger prints”, that we not only see but act. Thank you.

2. kathleen
   Jan 26th, 2007 at 11:38 am

   Wow. I’m having quite the fingerprint experience these last 24 hours; I was especially touched by Erwin’s message today because last night I awake unaccountably to write this:
   **

   This moment is earth in your hands.
   Press your palms together until your life-lines show in its surface,
   giving your sweat to give it shape
   until your fingers make thoughtful furrows with their touch.

   Take this moment, hold it up to the sun
   and sculpt it until it is perfect in the light.
   Make this moment more than untouched soil –
   press it to your chest, roll it, hand to belly,
   until it is shaped into a perfect universe.
   With the heat of from your skin it will change,
   add to it, take something away
   keeping it balanced ,
   always measuring, juggling its lightness, its weight.

   Hold this moment only to find that you are its clay,
   shifting with each change.
   Feel the comforting presence of palms, fingers
   surrounding you, guiding you to new form,
   giving you yourself in this moment.

   ***

   Hmmm…
   The only thing I don’t get is Erwin’s dissatisfaction with his voice! But seriously, we all need to be reminded we are not meant to be alone in a crowd - thanks.

3. Chris
   Jan 27th, 2007 at 1:24 am

   I think Erwin had a cold.

4. Dan
   Jan 29th, 2007 at 10:55 am

   Thank you so much for sharing your church with everyone. I can testify your teaching has impacted a life in the midwest. God Bless you.

5. Stephanie
   Jan 29th, 2007 at 4:06 pm

   Wow. Tears. Just… tears. What an amazing message and an amazing charge all rolled into on. Thank you.

6. Gavin
   Jan 30th, 2007 at 2:26 am

   Is it not strange how viewing ones fingerprint makes almost no sense when viewed up-close. But once you draw your hand back it all fit into a picture far greater that you thought.

   I have had exactly this experience and believe the impact of a fingerprint is to identify certain aspects of ones life. I have come to realize that the finger print God leaves on us is far bigger than ourselves. It sometimes only comes to light a bit later when you can stand back and see the “ once unresolved lines in your life” making up the fingerprint of God using you to touch the lives of people around you.

   So many times we get all worked up that things don’t work out the way we want them to, not realizing that if we just for a second put our selfish intents aside, we will see God move in a way never thought possible.

   Even in the burning, He will find you, and His fingerprints will be all over you….. the fingerprints of a Savior.

   Thank you for a very deep and impactful message in my life.