I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all but whatever I have placed in God’s hands, that I still possess.

The saying contrasts the fragility of human possession with the permanence of what is entrusted to God. “Held in my hands” evokes control, ownership, and the inevitable losses that come through time, change, or death. By contrast, placing something “in God’s hands” suggests surrender and trust: what is given over to divine care is not ultimately lost, even if it disappears materially, because it is preserved in God’s keeping (as gift, memory, or eternal good). Read in a Lutheran key, it aligns with Luther’s emphasis on faith over works and on security grounded not in worldly grasping but in reliance on God’s promise.