A Palm Sunday guide to praying with our hands
click here for a workbook/devotional guide to go along with this poem.
With our fingers we point and clap and wave a big hello
With our fingers we hold on tight and measure how tall we grow
With our fingers we eat and drink and open treats and snacks
With our fingers we rub our stuffie as our grandma rubs our backs
Our fingers are great at lots of things, the list goes on all day
But I want to tell you how our fingers can also help us pray
We fold our hands or hold them open, God doesn’t really care
God’s just eager to hear and listen and to take in what we share
We can pray for ourselves, we can pray for others
We can pray for our parents, sisters, siblings and brothers
We can pray for our country, for presidents, prime ministers and kings
We can pray for our enemies who hurt us with words that slice and sting
Our fingers can remind us to pray and praise and ponder
Each digit dials in a fear, a request, a wonder
There’s no wrong way to say a prayer but here’s a place to start
Just share what’s on your mind, let God hear what’s in your heart
With your thumb you can pray for family and friends—for anyone close by
The pointer’s for the teachers and coaches who encourage you to try
The tallest finger’s for those in charge in churches, cities and towns
The next one’s for the sick or sad, for someone feeling down.
We’ve prayed for our friends, our churches and schools, we’re almost to the end
There’s just one more thing to bring to mind—one more prayer to send
Our final finger is for us, for our bodies, spirits and minds
We can ask God to help us grow and to remind us to be kind
Our fingers can remind us that Jesus made a way
For us to talk directly to God—to say whatever we want to say
In Jesus’ day, the crowd created a parade of green tree palms
So now we wave and sing and pray with our fingers and our palms.
A crowd of hands can do lots of things, when fingers join together
We can pack and feed and sew and share and make our planet better
We can also sing and pray and read and pass a sign of peace
We can join our palms together, from the greatest to the least
Our fingers are great at lots of things, we’ve named a few above
Perhaps the most magical thing they do is show and share God’s love.