“You open wide your hand. They are well filled.” (Psalm 104: 28)
The psalmist uses the metaphor of an open hand to tell of divine abundance for our spiritual well-being. This Hand is not only open but spacious, indicative of a guaranteed largesse. What we are offered can sometimes be quite different than expected. The post-Easter scriptures suggest this, such as Acts 3:1-10. A physically crippled man begs for alms from the disciples. Instead of obtaining this from Peter and John, the man receives the gift of being healed from immobility. Immediatel,y he lets go of his initial request and, filled with elation, he leaps and dances his way into the temple. (What if this physically immobile man had responded to Peter, “Well, if you don’t have alms for me, forget it”? Obviously, our receptivity to divine bounty is required.)
In the post-Easter days, I’ve not leapt and danced for what I’ve received from this generous Presence. But I am amazed and grateful for what has arrived, starting with being in the company of an older woman filled with light. Her radiance consisted of more than an ever-present, gentle smile. Some invisible yet readily detectible harmony exuded through her, a quiet aura of kindness. “Not a white-robed angel at an empty tomb,” I thought as I left her presence, “but surely she is the stuff of which angels are made.”
Another unexpected gift arrived a few days later when I lifted the window blinds at dawn to behold the sliver of a waning moon. That simple piece of light in the midnight-blue sky transformed my numerous concerns about the ill-health of loved ones. I thought about the phases of the moon, how her fullness soon begins to dim, eventually waning to that last quarter phase I was gazing at. Soon there would be a new moon—no light at all in the sky, and after that phase a gradual return to full light once more. I drew comfort and insight from recalling this natural, cosmic movement, seeing it to be much like our own phases of darkness and light. In that gift of awareness, I understood how I was not to carry others’ burdens and struggles but to be with them in a loving way as they proceeded through their personal phases. Like the moon, they had a journey to make, one I could not keep them from but could accompany them with loving care and prayer.
My third Easter gift from the Wide-Open Hand arrived when I was invited to attend the Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines’s annual luncheon. Last year this organization granted $84 million to over 2,800 charitable causes. What an abundance of hope arose as I observed the crowd of people there who chose to go beyond the present milieu of material over-consumption and self-orientation, contributing significant funds for the good of others—actions confirming the reality of caring people in this world. Later in the day I remembered “Hold On to Love,” the song a good friend recently mentioned. Listening to the music/lyrics filled my post-Easter spirit to the brim with renewed joy.
What unforeseen bounty have you recently received from the Wide-Open Hand? Yours might have also been different than expected. Whatever has been given to you, may it keep your spirit alive with hope and provide a strong orientation toward compassion.
Abundant peace,
Joyce Rupp
