Living with Arms Wide Open

Have you ever heard of Charles St. Bernard?  The parents of a three year old daughter certainly do and won't forget him as he dashed over to the window just in time to catch her falling 3 floors from their apartment.  She escaped injury; he tore his shoulder.  We all learn the lesson that by going through life with "arms wide open," we are prepared to embrace and be embraced--in our joys, sorrows and every need.  We are made to hold each others' lives.  Look at the picture above.  The man lives with open arms.  The embrace will form his life to do the same.

Imagine going through life with a clenched fist?  You cannot grasp anything. A chief function of the human body is the use of the hand and its opposing thumb.  It's virtually useless as a fist.  Of course--we don't have to imagine the use of a fist.  Just keep in mind that when we hit or use force, there is an opposing reaction in us.  Fists speak the language of anger--and it eats us up more than others.  (image belowCopyright: Dmitriy Shironosov)  

 Plato had this to say about anger: 

There are two things a person should never be angry about:
what they can help, and what they cannot.

But...

How do we transform our lives from fists into open arms?  We are quite human and do have that instinct for fight or flight--both of which equally close us off to others.  I respect the saying from Hawthorne that we become what we worship.  (Today, we love to say, "we are what we eat!)  I wonder if arms outreached to the heavens to worship the heaven's Creator are prepared to live with open arms for others?  Perhaps when we lift our arms to the heavens to praise the Creator, we have to let go of whatever we are holding onto---everything.