I have been thinking a lot these days about postures for prayer, especially what we do with our hands. Perhaps it is because I have been doing a series of drawings of hands as I convalesce. Hands are beautiful and they express so much.
When I was a child I was taught to pray with my hands folded. I remember reciting a prayer, "I fold my hands, I bow my head, I thank you for my daily bread."
As a pastor I have taught children to fold their hands to pray. I did it mostly because the were squirming and touching each other, and it was a way to quiet them down. As I write this I realize that that is, indeed, a good thing to quiet ourselves to pray.
But folding hands does not really seem to match what we do when we pray. When we pray we open our hearts. Perhaps it is more fitting to open our hands.
Open, empty hands remind us that we possess nothing that we have not received from God. We open our hands to a sudden rain that pours down upon us. We open our hands in surprise and in joy. We open our hands to signify that whatever our loving God has in store for us, we are poised to receive.
Open hands cannot hold on to the past or hold on to grudges or hold on to hurts. It is the proper posture for confession.
When we say thank you to someone we do it with open hands. And our thanks always begin with thanking God.
Open hands receive, but they also give. It becomes like water flowing over our hands from that sudden rain. We receive and we give and we forgive and we give thanks. Open hands cannot interrupt the flow. And they cannot avoid it or bypass it. Being truly alive means being a part of the flow of receiving and giving and thanksgiving. And we do it all with open hands and open hearts.
Lord, we give you thanks for opening our hearts and our hands to what you would have us receive and what you would have us give. Amen
.
Copyright © 2007, The Rev. Dana Reardon. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Email her at mspastor@aol.com.
The Rev. Dana Reardon is pastor at St.
Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church, Warwick, RI. A lifelong Lutheran, she
came to ordained ministry after 21 years in nursing, mostly in pediatric
intensive care. She graduated from Lutheran Theological Seminary at
Philadelphia in 1998 and served 4 ½ years in Upstate New York before
becoming a New Englander. She is still trying to understand the
accent. While in the Upstate New York Synod she chaired the Stewardship
Team. That began her fascination with what makes stewards -- and more,
what makes for generosity. She has three amazing daughters: Pastor Reardon says much of what she knows of
life she learned from them.
