In God's Hands

What is a miracle?Thats the central question of this book, told from a Jewish perspective, but equally valid for Christians.Does a miracle require God to visibly, obviously make something happen on Earth?A lady's car dies in a bad neighborhood. She prays for help, and her prayer is answered when a good Samaritan stops to jump-start her car. Is that a miracle? Or just a coincidence?A father who's been laid off and is about to be foreclosed on prays for God to provide a place for his family. He suddenly gets a job offer from a company who heard about him from a friend, and with whom he never applied. Miracle? Or coincidence?A man has terminal cancer and has been told he has 6 months to live. He asks his church to pray for him. 3 months later he goes in and is found to be cancer free for no medical reason. Miracle? Or coincidence?Defining a miracle is hard even for adults, let alone explaining them to children.In this book, David is poor with a wife and 3 kids, and his family is hungry, but he's a devout Jew who loves God. Jacob is rich and fat and falls asleep in church. But one day, Jacob wakes up just enough to hear a reading from Leviticus: "you shall make 12 loaves of bread and set them before me in 2 rows". Upon leaving the church, Jacob is convinced that he's heard the voice of God (perhaps he has), so he goes home, bakes 12 loaves of bread, and leaves them in the church. No sooner has Jacob left, then David enters the church and asks God for help providing for his family. He then sees the 12 loaves of bread. He takes it as a miracle and an answer to his prayer. This cycle continues for several weeks until the rabbi sees the whole exchange. It is the rabbi's answer that makes the book worth reading, so I won't spoil the ending.We've referred back to this book on numerous occasions when our family was the good Samaritan. We often mention to our kids that we have no idea whether we were the answer to someone else's prayer. We don't know what God's doing, but He does.In short: God doesn't need us to work miracles. He can always find someone else. But if he wants to work a miracle through you, why would you refuse?That's a message I'm happy to teach my kids.

I really do love this little book. It tells the story of how we are all interconnected, and our prayers and actions are both intrinsically valuable. I read it to my littles when they were small, we told the story to groups of supporters when we were living on the mission field, and I just re-purchased it to have on our shelf of favorites.

In God's Hands is a fable about how God meets the needs of people in unexpected ways. The story is based in a Temple, which connects families who have very different socio-economic status in the community. A man prays for help feeding his family, and God answers the prayers through another man who has plenty to share. Neither man comes into contact with the other until the Rabbi catches on to what is happening and introduces the two men to each other. A great story for children of all ages!

I love this book. I've read it quite a few times and given it to others (adults) as a gift.What is a miracle? This book shows that people perform an active role in miracles but the miracles are still real.

I happened across this title at a book fair at my child's school. The story is a beautiful one that hinges on the idea that we are the hands of G-d in the world for each other. The illustrations are stunning and colorful. My children ages 11, 9, 6 and 3 all enjoy hearing this story read aloud. This book would make a wonderful gift and is an excellent tool to expose young children to Jewish culture.

A sweet story about how we are the hands of God, that mostly takes place at the Ark in a Jewish synagogue.

Beautiful book with a universal message about helping how helping others, also helps ourself.

I work in the Children's Division in a public library. I checked this book out to read with my eight year old daughter. Now, I'm back to purchase it for our home collection. My daughter cannot stop talking about this book! We both love it.It will bring a smile and laughter!The story is wonderful: a rich man hears his rabbi read a scripture in the synagogue, he takes the scripture to heart, and bakes 12 loaves of challah bread. He does this for God. But where does he put the bread?He goes back to the synagogue, and stashes the bread in the Torah scrolls, of course!A poor man goes to the synagogue and prays to God for help.He opens the Torah scroll. Voila!His prayer is answered by the challah bread inside. (Are you smiling, yet?)This scenario continues for weeks.To each man, this becomes routine.The rich man bakes the bread and then hurriedly tosses it in the Torah scrolls.The poor man mumbles a quick, "Thanks, God!" and he's own his way.The rabbi catches on to this routine.He introduces the 2 men to each other.They see that they were God's helping hands to each other all along.