Monday, February 9, 2026
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Hands out
There was nothing in the ark
but the two stone tablets
which Moses had put there at Horeb,
when the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel
at their departure from the land of Egypt.
Nothing else much matters. The Germans sought something more in that famous Indiana Jones movie. We all do the same thing sometimes, seek something more. What’s in the Ark for us?
All the people of Israel
assembled before King Solomon
during the festival.
We talk among ourselves. We know how special this day is. I stand as straight as I could to get glimpses of the passing procession. Not every day does our family get to see priests and king in the same parade. Perhaps even prophets are attending this moving of the Ark.
I remember the story of Uzzah, dying when he touched the ark after it fell to the ground. The ground had never sinned, but Uzzah was a fallen human, so his impure hands could not touch the Ark. No sinning hand could touch it. I feel my hands, rub my fingers up across my palms. O Lord, forgive my hands and protect me from your punishments.
King Solomon and the entire community of Israel
sacrificed before the Ark sheep and oxen
too many to number or count.
Lord, go up to the place of your rest!
Let us worship at your footstool.
My wife and children are in the crowd somewhere. I am tall enough, but still I don’t see them. I hope they are not touching the Ark! I smell all the animal blood and cringe at the bleating of the sheep and moaning of the cows, their throats cut by our usually benign priests. Now I see the work the priests sometimes are called to do, awful and ugly on earth but sending sweet scents of blood to heaven. Is that how it is? No, I don’t understand. Do you? What good is this shedding of the blood of the innocent?
May your priests be clothed with justice,
reject not the plea of your anointed.
Priests and kings encircle God and try to keep Him under control with the blood.
(I must not say this aloud, I must watch my pseudo-prophet tongue.)
Is it true that the prophets sometimes turn away from the path pressed into place by the priests?
“I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free” (Psalm 119:32). Such a simple statement, but every word demands definition.
I’ve found ways to worship God without the blood, but nothing I do seems like it’s enough. Sitting in the morning sun, chanting my songs, I lift my hands up to the sky. I rise up and call all around me blessed. I give thanks for our family’s simple meals and laugh and pray with my children. My wife and I see the stars everywhere in the night sky and pray ourselves to sleep.
So beautiful to live, so warm in my memories. So what is missing? On this day of rejoicing I’m surrounded by others, as we receive occasional glances from the priests and king. But in all this ritual and rigamarole, I feel alone, more apart from God rather than near Him.
When the priests left the holy place,
 the cloud filled the temple of the Lord.
What, Lord?
What is wrong with me?
After making the crossing
 to the other side of the sea,
Jesus and his disciples
came to land at Gennesaret.
As they were leaving the boat,
people immediately recognized him.
Is there something here for me, oh my Father?
This sudden splendid vision brings life into my heart and sweet breath into my lungs. In the cloud, in the temple, I see Jesus. Yes, his name will be called Jesus. And he will save us from our sins. My sinful hands, always loved, the hands You gave me, no longer afflict my soul.
I rub my fingertips down my palms and laugh with joy. You have set me free! And I will run in the path of your commands.
Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered,
the people living there laid the sick down
 and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak;
and as many as touched it … were healed.
(1 Kings 8, Psalm 132, Matthew 4, Mark 6
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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