All creation, seen and unseen, is in the hand of God, surrounded and upheld in Love. You, I, “this fragile earth our island home,” (BCP,p.370) our solar system, our galaxy, all the galaxies beyond our sight are in the hand of God. The microcosm, as well as the macrocosm, is in the hand of God. Nothing is too small for God’s attention, for the One who has counted the hairs of our heads (Mt. 10:20, Lk.12:7). Nothing is too overwhelming for God’s care. Even “Death has been swallowed up in victory” (I Cor.15:54) through the resurrection of Christ Jesus, who leads us into new life, both here and hereafter.

Lazarus, in our gospel today, experienced the reality of that truth, that we are always in the hand of God. As Jesus says elsewhere, “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life . . . has passed from death to life.” (Jn.5:24) “By everlasting [eternal] life,” our Catechism (BCP, p.862) explains: “we mean a new existence, in which we are united with all the people of God, in the joy of fully knowing and loving God and each other.” The phrase “united with all the people of God” brings to mind the communion of saints that we celebrate today. Again referring to the Catechism (BCP, p.862): “The communion of saints is the whole family of God, the living and the dead, those whom we love and those whom we hurt, bound together in Christ by sacrament, prayer, and praise.” We are assured by St. Paul that the living and the dead are in the hand of God, enfolded in Divine Love, as he told the Romans: “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom.8:38-39)

For fun, go online and check out the song “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.” If it touches your heart, you might want to sing along.