Have you ever gone to a palm reader?  I don’t know enough about it but years ago you would see them everywhere, especially in tourist towns.  People pay money for someone with a scarf on their head in a dimly lit room with a few candles and some incense burning to tell you your future by looking at the lines on your hand.

I remember when I was younger, people said that if you had lines on the palm of your hand that formed an M you would get married one day.  I’m pretty sure most everyone can make those lines on your palms create an M.

Palm readers would predict the future of the customer and that person would walk out feeling excited and look for ways to show that prediction was true.   If the prediction was that they were going to have good fortune, they may work harder looking for quick money or play the lottery having full confidence it was their turn for fortune.

If the palm reading showed there was trouble brewing in the future, that person walked away sad and worried and was on the lookout for trouble – maybe even creating an issue out of something small thinking the prediction of the palm reader was their fate.

I’m here to tell you that there is only one palm reading we need to concern ourselves with and that is the palm of the Master’s hand.  Isaiah 49:16 says, “See I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.”  I believe this was a prophecy of what was to come with Jesus’s death.

Thomas was the doubter.  He said he would not believe that Jesus was alive unless he could “see the nail marks in his hands and put [my] finger where the nails were.” (John 20:25)

Thomas refused to believe Jesus was alive unless he had proof himself.  When Jesus appeared to the disciples and told Thomas to “put your finger here; see my hands” and Thomas did so and exclaimed “My Lord and my God!”  (John 20:27-28)

Jesus went on to tell Thomas in verse 29, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”  That’s us!!  We don’t get to be palm readers and physically hold the hand of Jesus and feel those nail scars on his hands.  But we get to put our hand in His hand by trusting fully and having the Holy Spirit with us each day in our soul reminding us that His palms are the only ones worth reading!