Give me your Hand

After my last post I went back to reading some of Rainer Maria Rilke’s poetry. I read the poem ‘Give me your Hand.’

Give Me Your Hand

God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.

These are words we dimly hear:
You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.

Flare up like flame
and make big shadows I can move in.

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going.  No feeling is final.
Don’t let yourself lose me.

Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousnes.

Give me your hand.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke ~

We all want our hand held from time to time. What is striking in this piece is God’s request to us all in our creation to give God our hand. In this poem we are told that God speaks to each of us as we are made.

 

God’s message?

‘Flare up like flame and make big shadows I can move in.’

I think that is quite profound. God moving in the shadows of the light that we are. This gives a good perspective on the ways in which we have the ability to be great agents of Love, of Change, of Hope in the world. God speaks to us that in the shadow of our efforts there will be divine action.

 

God’s message?

‘Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going.  No feeling is final.
Don’t let yourself lose me.’

We seem to be preoccupied sometimes with the notion that somehow we can avoid the pitfalls that sometimes come in life.  What is worse, at times we have been convinced that those hard times are somehow a result “God’s plan.” Rilke’s reminder is a comforting word from a Creator who says ‘Don’t let yourself lose me.’ Everything will happen to us. Life is beauty and sadly sometimes life is terror. No feeling is final.

 

God’s message?

‘Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.

Give me your hand.’

 

We cannot miss life when we see it. It is easily recognizable by its seriousness. Every opportunity we have cast laughter in the world is another opportunity to cast a shadow of holiness and goodness. Even into our showers of sadness there are moments when joy and pain mingle. Whatever we face we have to know that God will take our hand – and guide us all the way as everything happens to us.

 

See you in the country they call life!