Violent Hands That Please

Reflection on Acts 12 (WomanPreach!)

Violent Hands
Strong hands
Harming hands
Dangerous hands

Hands that strike
Hands that spite
Hands that destroy
Hands that divide

Hands of man
And hands of woman

Hands that please
Hands that gratify and satisfy
Hands that titillate and gladden

Violent Hands

Dear Violent Hands,

Hands of Herod, the one whose name means heroic, why have your hands chosen to slay? Not one, but 17.

Violent Hands of society, why do we glamorize you? Industries that promote and propagate violence 
thru video games, motion pictures, and toy guns…you do not surprise us. Violent hands of society that sexualizes violence against women as something that is normal and desirable, leaving no safe space for any woman.

Violent hands of society that has popularized and immortalized fictitious figures from movies like The Godfather and Scarface, where we all are able to quote to a tee phrases like “say hello to my little friend!” as if he doesn’t blow away a group of men following that statement. No, your violence does not shock us. Because violent hands please.

Those who sit in the hands of violence, why are we pleased? How do we call ourselves holy or chosen and be pleased by violence? How do we take delight in the cruelty of murder? How do we gloss over the obliteration of life as something to be celebrated? We may not celebrate the death of the 17 in the text, but there is another death. 


What do we do when violent hands die violently?

When the hand’s of God turn violent, what are we to do with them? 


Dear violent hands of God, how am I to greet you? Your violence is not like that of man, to become popular or liked by the masses. No your hands are a means for justice. They are for the protection of the people. Hands that create also destroy. I meet your hands In reverence. I dare not worship a 1 sided God who does not acknowledge the shortcomings of her creation. I honor that at times destruction is necessary. I honor the truth of the death of the unjust. Surely violent hands that disgrace and take pride in the demise of the weak must fall. Violent hands that masquerade as mighty as God’s must be destroyed. Oh violent hands, let me not be unjust in my dealings that I meet the violent hands of God.