The Open Hand View

The deeper we go into our years, the more we understand that life is about letting go.  In earlier days we lived with the conviction that life was about taking hold.  We lived taking hold of as much stuff as our hands could hold.  As we go along we all come to that time, either sooner or later, when we live into that moment Jesus held forth for all to see as He spoke a parable.  It was a parable about a man who had accumulated much to hold in his hands and was intent on holding even more.  In the parable the man with full hands heard God saying to him, "You fool!  This very night your life is being demanded of you.  And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?"  (Luke 12:20).   

When we hold all our stuff and allow ourselves to be confronted with the question, "whose will they be?" we are enabled to see life differently.   In that moment we will either clench our fist more tightly as a way of denying reality, or we will loosen our clenched fist and embrace the viewpoint of the open hand.  The open hand view of life is one which enables us to see that what we call ours is being loaned to us.  It will not be ours forever, but for a short season.  

What we call ours will one day be theirs.  When our hands are open, generosity is more likely to flow from our fingers than greed.  Open hands means open eyes.  We will be able to see the needs of the suffering broken, reasons to help instead of excuses for ignoring what we see, and the down and out as our brothers, our sisters, our neighbors.  Open hands and open eyes create open hearts. We become people who not only talk about caring, but who become those who express caring by sharing.