The Hands that Hold All Things
Colossians 1:15-20
by Daniel Barkley
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things were created through him and for him.
You would be hard pressed to find a more beautiful passage in all of God’s Word. This moving letter from Paul echoes all the way back to the Psalms, beckoning our wandering hearts into the theater of God’s glory… to have a seat and gaze at the wondrous mystery. Christ Jesus is the Lord of All and “in Him, all things hold together.”
Consider for a moment, the hands that hold everything together.
Imagine them flinging out stars into the cosmos. Imagine them shaping mountains and carving out valleys. Picture them stitching together a child in his mother’s womb. Watch as they hold the oceans back at the shores or number the grains of sand. Every single molecule… held together by His hands.
That’s what verses 15-17 are getting at. Then comes the most mind-boggling truth you will ever discover, hiding in plain sight here in Colossians 1.
“And he is the head of the body, the church… in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things… making peace by the blood of his cross.”
The hands that fashioned the galaxies, became human hands and took the nails of crucifixion to purchase His own creation. Christ is Lord of All and He became human… the fullness of God dwelling in Him and amongst us, to reconcile us and everything else, back to God.
Those hands that hold all things together… they made peace for us, by the blood of the cross.
Read this passage aloud as you gather together with your loved ones. Cherish this irreversible, irreplaceable, irreplicable, and infinitely wondrous truth: Jesus has taken everything that exists, seen and unseen, and has brought them together through the cross. He is binding together all that has ever been broken and He desires to do that in and through you, today.
Jesus, you are the Lord of all things and you alone deserve my worship and wonder today and every day.