To live with open hands.
Today, I am going to let Anne Marie talk to you from Peru, about what it means to live with open hands, these clay hands are made by her. And I must tell you that her vision is very poor, the result of a degenerative disease called retinopathy pigmentosa.
“What if we stopped to contemplate these two hands? We are not used to seeing our hands like this, let alone living with open hands. Often during the day, they are rather closed over the mobile phone or actively working, busy with 1000 things. If we were to let this image challenge us… What does it arouse in us? I think it wants to remind us of something very profound and simple: our nature.
We are very poor beings who need to open our hands every day to receive life, existence, strength and all the grace that God wants to give us to face what we have to live. In the end, it reminds us that everything is a gift: what do I have that I have not received? So let us also stretch out our hands and try to remember what we have received up to the present day. I think it is impossible because it would be too much. But just let what comes to us come to the surface. It is grace.
Giving back
And so, let us also be reminded of another truth. All that we have received, we can give back. That is also our nature. Our life becomes meaningful when we know how to stretch out our hands to give, to pass on what has been freely given to us. We are transmitters of something that does not belong to us. Deep down, we constantly give and receive, as if it were the deepest breath of our being. Giving and receiving what makes me live, what makes me happy. And also, what sustains me and gives me meaning; what only I can give because God has created me as I am for it”.
What great sensitivity and what beauty to express our being creatures, needy to receive and at the same time, great to give.
And you, what have you received and what do you have to give?
Ana Palma SEMD Philippines
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