This may not seem very manly, but sometimes I just need someone to hold my hand. I need affection. That’s what I love about my grandchildren. When I take them somewhere and extend my hand, they always hold it. It never fails. They hold my hand until they let it go so they can run ahead to something they can’t wait to get to. It’s one of the things I love about my wife. When we go for a walk and I extend my hand, she holds it. We have been walking together for a long time, and she never fails to hold my hand whenever I extend it to her. 

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, we need to take care of each other. We need to look out for each other. We need to lower the barriers that keep us apart: racial tension, religious separatism, cultural warfare, partisan politics, sports rivalries, generation gaps, gender divides, you name it. Sometimes we just need to stop talking and hold each other’s hands. If we don’t look out for each other, who in this world will? 

Maybe I sound like an old hippie. I don’t care. Sometimes I don’t know what to say and don’t want to hear any more divisive rhetoric. I just need someone to hold my hand. I need the touch of people and the touch of God in my life to feel it’s all right. “Into your hands I commit my spirit; deliver me, Lord, my faithful God” (Psalm 31:5).