Praying Hands

With 16 other siblings in the house, two brothers of the Dürer family realized their poor goldsmith father would not have the finances to support their dream of furthering their art education. They made a pact through a coin toss. One would attend the academy, while the other worked in the mines. After completion of study, the two would switch.

The winner of the coin toss was Albrecht Dürer, who went off to Nuremberg to study art for four years. His brother Albert financed him through his work at the mines. When the later famed artist returned, the family and village held a dinner in his honor. It was then that Albrecht sought to swap roles to fulfill their dual ambitions. He would now go to the mines and Albert to the academy.

After some silence the brother declined with tears on his face and with his two hands raised. Apparently working in the mines had ruined his fingers with arthritis, removing any artistic dexterity he might have once had. He was happy for this brother’s success and lived vicariously through his prominence.

Albrecht Dürer’s “Praying Hands’ (Google Art Project)

As a tribute to his brother’s selflessness and sacrifice, Albrecht modeled his brother’s hands in what is today a famous sketch, entitled Praying Hands, and stored today in Vienna, Austria. You may not be familiar with it. But after seeing it, you will remember having seen it somewhere before. Many have a reproduction hanging in their homes, offices, or on some artifact from a Christian bookstore.

More than Christian kitsch, those praying hands symbolize the loss, self-sacrifice, and generous charity of brotherly love. One may counter that scripture says obedience is better than sacrifice (1 Sam. 15:22). But note the point that inner sacrificial obedience is better than outward disobedient sacrifice. In other words, it was Jesus’ humility and obedience that resulted in a selfless and sacrificial death, even the death on a cross (Phil. 2:8).

How perfect it was to capture these sentiments in the form of praying hands! It is sacrifice that is the circulating currency of the kingdom of God. It is sacrifice that distinguishes the true Christian from the nominal one. It is sacrifice that started the movement, and it is sacrifice that will end it.

Whether it be sacrificing one’s youth for a family member, one’s wealth for an organization, one’s best years for overseas missions, one’s highest energies for the gospel, or one’s life for our Advent cause, know that we do this in mimicry, in imitation, in honor, and in discipleship of the Son of God, whose hands are praying for us now.