Psalm 73:23 Good News Translation
23 Yet I always stay close to you,
and you hold me by the hand.
When I was in college, the girls would occasionally tell me
about one of their deans of women. At least once per semester, this diminutive spinster
would give them a worship talk about appropriate courtship behavior. One of the
talk’s unstated purposes was to prevent embarrassing premarital pregnancy, of
course. She urged the girls to turn their boyfriend’s picture toward the wall when
changing clothes. In this way she would not get used to undressing in front of
men. When on a warm spring day, he invites her to a pleasant picnic lunch on
the spacious lawns of the university elsewhere and spreads a blanket for them
to sit on to eat their lunch, she must refuse to sit on it. Who knows how many
short minutes it would be before he had her lying on the blanket, doing
terrible things, like kissing her? In the dean’s zeal, she would encourage the
girls to never hold hands with their beaus. After all, everyone knows that
holding hands leads to pregnancy.
So… what did Sylvia and I do? Neither of us had a car so we
could escape the spying eyes. Yet we walked around campus holding hands. This
was as much public display of affection as we were allowed on campus.
Furthermore, it was pleasurable, and we could chat in subdued voices and still
hear each other.
We still often walk hand in hand. Then, of course, when we
are hiking in the hills around our home, I will often offer her my hand when we
come to a difficult part of the climb. She is highly independent and, in the
past, would almost as often withdraw her hand in disdain. But nowadays, after a
few embarrassing slips, she will usually take it, or as often, simply lay a
single finger in my hand, as though to say, “Now don’t baby me!”
Even God offers the same reassuring gesture by offering to
hold us by the hand.
Precious Lord
take my hand, lead me on, help me stand.
[1]
https://siragainesville.com/category/sti-testing/
