“I have cast my anchor in the port of peace, knowing that present and future are in nail-pierced hands” (from The Valley of Vision).

I think outside the Bible, The Valley of Vision is my favorite book. It’s a collection of Puritan prayers (and man, did those Puritans know how to pray!) I think there are a lot of misconceptions when it comes to who the Puritans were and how they lived — like the word puritannical. But that’s a topic for another day.

I love that my present and future are in nail-pierced hands. Jesus took the nails so I wouldn’t have to. He endured the cross in my place. Is there anything I need that He wouldn’t give me? Will there ever be a moment where I truly lack that He won’t provide?

I love that the glorified Jesus still bears the scars from those nails. Those scars are proof that He endured and overcame. He met death, the grave, and hell on their own terms and defeated them all forever. He showed that our own scars are not ugly mementoes but also the proof that we have overcome and lived to tell the tale.

Those nail-scarred hands are the hands that shaped the world and formed me in my mother’s womb. Those are the hands that healed the blind man and touched the leper. Those are the hands that welcomed the little children to come to Him. Those are the hands that stretched wide on an old rugged cross for you and me to take our sin and give us life.

Truly, my present and my future, my hopes and dreams, all of me is held by nail-scarred hands.