Is there anything better than a really good hand cream on a dry day? I love me some high-quality lotion. I can almost hear my hands: glub, glub, glub.
My husband though? His hands could be sparking from the friction. They could be a mere half a degree from kindling and he would still snub my hand cream. I say snub, but spurn would be more like it. Maybe “repulsed repugnance” is closer. Is that redundant? If so, I still think it still fits because he doubly-triply-quadruply despises all things even nearly linimentish.
Richie doesn’t even want me to drive his car after I’ve lotioned up. According to him, it makes his steering wheel “gooey.” I’ve seen him drive his car after hand-creamed-me has had a turn, and he’ll drive using only a forefinger and a thumb from each hand. Or my favorite is when he pulls his sweater sleeves over his hands.
Granted, I might have to admit somewhere in here that when I say I love me some lotion, I mean it. Sometimes I may go a tad overboard. I consider myself sufficiently creamed when my fingers are so slippery I can barely keep them from sliding off that steering wheel. Never ask me to hold your favorite coffee mug. Because I may have recently been swimming in my vat of lotion and there’s no way to have enough mug-holding traction. Bye-bye fave mug. Give me an ocean of lotion. That’ll be perfect, thanks.
More perfect than any lotion could ever satisfy, though, I love how our God satisfies every dry heart—all the way to the innermost parts of our souls. “God, you are my God; I eagerly seek you. I thirst for you; my body faints for you in a land that is dry, desolate, and without water. So I gaze on you in the sanctuary to see your strength and your glory. My lips will glorify you because your faithful love is better than life. So I will bless you as long as I live; at your name, I will lift up my hands. You satisfy me as with rich food; my mouth will praise you with joyful lips” (Psalm 63:1-5 CSB).
When we seek the God who quenches and we desire Him more than anything else—whether life feels dry or downright gooey—we find ourselves swimming in the deepest satisfaction. Contented. Fulfilled. Satiated! As we get a glimpse of His strength, His glory, His faithful love—we leave behind the crackly-dried for every kind of satisfied. I think it’s impossible not to slip into praise and worship as He so beautifully quenches.
It’s good for us to remember that in any difficult place, God’s faithful love can lead us to a sweet, gratifying closeness with Him. “The Lord will always lead you, satisfy you in a parched land, and strengthen your bones. You will be like a watered garden and like a spring whose water never runs dry” (Isaiah 58:11 CSB). Never running dry, ever-lotioned—in a beautiful way. No matter the circumstances. It’s a glorious heart-watering. David had the perfect response in Psalm 63. “So I will bless you as long as I live; at your name, I will lift up my hands” (vs. 4). Praise!
By the way, if we’re ever in the same crowd of praising hands, mine will be the ones that are especially moisturized.