Practicing the Presence | Prompt 2: Hands at Work

“Capture hands at work—or well-used tools.”

There’s something sacred about hands. The ones that make, mend, stir, soothe, carry, scrub, write. The ones that belong to you and the ones that have shaped your life in quiet ways.

We often rush past the work of our hands. We focus on what we’re getting done, not on how God might be meeting us in the act of doing.

But what if washing the dishes could become a kind of prayer? What if holding a pencil, stirring soup, or folding a wrinkled shirt could be a place where we notice the nearness of God?

What Is “Practicing the Presence”?

It’s a spiritual practice rooted in the idea that God is always with us and that we can learn to be with God in return, not just in church or on our knees, but in the rhythms of daily life.

Brother Lawrence, a 17th-century monk who worked in the kitchen of his monastery, called it “the holiest and most necessary practice in the spiritual life.”

He wrote:

“We can do little things for God… we turn the cake that is frying on the pan for love of Him, and that done, if there is nothing else to call us, we prostrate ourselves in worship before Him…”

God meets us in the middle of flour-dusted counters, paint-smeared fingers, muddy boots.

Try This

Take a moment today to notice the hands at work in your life.

Maybe it’s your own: scrubbing, stirring, typing, holding.

Maybe it’s someone else’s: planting a garden, tying a shoelace, sanding a piece of wood.

Or maybe it’s the worn tools themselves: threadbare dish towels, paintbrushes with frayed ends, a much-used wooden spoon.

Take a photo if you like. Not for show, but as a way to slow down and say: “God, you are here in this.”

Ask yourself:

• What are my hands doing today?

• What love is hidden in this ordinary task?

• How might this small act become a place of communion?

If you’d like to share what you find, tag your photo with #PracticingPresence or leave a comment below. I’d love to see through your eyes.