I once watched a social experiment video. Participants were shown photos of someone’s palms and asked what kind of work the person might do. Their answers were: “hands with many wrinkles that work with soil,” “someone who does hard labor,” “hands that have endured much hardship.”
A moment later, the owners of those hands appeared. They were the participants’ own mothers, wives, sisters, or daughters. Stunned, they stood speechless for a while. Soon, tears welled up, and some even kissed the hands before them. Seeing the stories engraved in those hands—hands that had sacrificed for family and silently endured a lifetime of hardship—brought a lump to my throat.
I, too, quietly held my mother’s hand. Married when she was still young and delicate, she worked the fields and raised her children with such devotion that her fingerprints wore away. When her youngest daughter, whom she had raised with that same tender care, had grown old enough to find white hairs of her own, I held my mother’s hand again. Now it was thin and cold.
When I grasped her hand tightly like a child, she smiled brightly. But I, recalling her life, could not hold back my tears. She had given her whole body and strength to love me, yet remembered not the pain, only the happy moments. I am endlessly thankful to my mother—for becoming my mother and for loving me so completely.
If the love my mother poured out on me throughout her life is only a copy and shadow, how immeasurable must be the love of our Heavenly Parents? I think of the hands of our Heavenly Father, who prayed for His children’s salvation and happiness from early morning, worked as a stonemason by day, and wrote the Truth Books by night. I think of the hands of our Heavenly Mother, who, without missing a single day for many long years, has prayed for the safety of Her children. God, who deserves only glory, bears hands marked with pain and hardened calluses because of His children’s sins. Yet even so, without saying, “It hurts,” Father and Mother have written each of our names upon Their palms, waiting for us to return to Their embrace. To Them, I offer my deepest prayers of gratitude and repentance.
In heaven, where there will be no more parting, sorrow, or pain, I want to hold the hands of our Heavenly Parents once again—to forever express the love and gratitude I could not fully convey on this earth.