Big Little People Treasure Your Thumbs

CEBU, Philippines - Have you ever looked closely at your thumbs before? Well, today is a good time to do that.

Hold them in front of you and examine them. Now, look at the rest of your fingers. One hand is made up of four fingers and one thumb. Because you have two hands, you have a pair of thumbs and a total of eight fingers.

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Try moving your thumbs and fingers (also called digits). Our thumb is the shortest, thickest digit on our hand; it also moves in a different direction than the other digits.

The term used to best describe our thumbs is opposable. They are called opposable because they can be moved around to touch the other fingers, which the other fingers cannot do as well. Our thumbs give us the ability to grasp things.

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Why am I writing about thumbs? What is so important about these stubby digits?

Ah, they are very, very important indeed! I found this out this week when I hurt my right thumb and couldn’t use it at all.

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These were some of many things I couldn’t manage to do without my right thumb:

1. Put on my socks.

2. Tie my shoe laces.

3. Brush my teeth.

4. Comb my hair.

5. Open the lid of a jar.

6. Pull up the zipper of my dress or pants.

7. Write with my pencil or ballpen. 

8. Button my shirt or blouse. 

9. Make a thumb-up sign.

10. Use thumb tacks on my bulletin board.

11. Open a door knob.

12. Peel an orange.

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If you don’t believe me, try to do this simple exercise to find out just how important your thumbs are.

Have someone lightly tape your thumbs to the sides of your hands. Then, without using your thumbs at all, do the 12 activities I listed above.

Any success? See, your thumbs are incredibly important!

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Every single part of our body (no matter how insignificant we may think it is) has been created by God to do important things for us.

No wonder the Psalmist wrote in Psalm 139:14 (NIRV): “How you made me is amazing and wonderful. I praise you for that. What you have done is wonderful. I know that very well.” 

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But what about those who have been born without a thumb? You are probably thinking!

Well, we have a big, great God. He gives them the ability to cope and do things in a way we can never imagine. But to those of us He gave the gift of thumbs, we need to be grateful for them! In fact, let us be grateful to our Creator for all our body parts. 

I used to take my thumbs for granted because they were always there. Until that day I hurt one of them and couldn’t do much of anything without it! Now, I treasure both my thumbs every day.

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This deserves a thumbs-up, don’t you think? All together now—thumbs-up for our thumbs! Please visit my website: http://leavesof grace.blogspot.com or email me at: [email protected]  (FREEMAN)