Are you handy?

Several months ago, friends who were starting an Alpaca farm on their property asked me to come out and document their barn raising (they were starting small, so it was a pole barn raising!).  This is my favorite shot of the day.

I was initially excited that the hammer and nail were both in focus, and I thought the shadow was kind of cool too.  Then I noticed the hands.  The gentleman behind those hands is in his 80s and has been doing this kind of work for many years.  He had been going about his business very quietly, working mostly on his own, and accomplishing more than those using power tools.

After my initial perusal of the photos from that day, when I was looking at them more critically, I was drawn back to this one.  I kept trying to figure out WHY it spoke to me.  Yes, part of it was that hammer/nail thing.  But it was those hardworking hands I kept looking at.  The way they were just going about their business, using the skills developed over years of working, was another part of it.  It sounds really corny, but when I realized what I'd captured, I almost gasped out loud.  Those are the hands of a servant.  Not just a servant for that day.  A servant for probably the vast majority of his 80+ years.  Those hands have lovingly and gladly provided assistance for many people, and show the surety of his servanthood in the way he handles the wood and hammer.  Those hands with the wrinkles and veins as their landscape are the hands I aspire to have some day.