This story may be just a legend which has been attributed to the famous artist Albrecht Durer who later became a great friend of Martin Luther.
Albrecht Durer came from a family of 18 children. In the 15th century Europe, such a big family would be a struggle for any father to put food on the table.
Despite the seemingly hopeless condition two of the Durer children had a dream to be artists. But they both knew that their father could not be able to send them to Nuremberg to study at the Academy.
After many long discussions at night in their crowded bed, the two boys finally worked out a pact. They would toss a coin. The loser would go down into the nearby mines and, with his earnings, support his brother while he attended the academy. Then, when that brother who won the toss completed his studies, in four years, he would support the other brother at the academy, either with sales of his artwork or, if necessary, also by laboring in the mines. They tossed a coin on a Sunday morning after church. Albrecht Durer won the toss and went off to Nuremberg.
Albert went down into the dangerous mines and, for the next four years, worked hard. Albrecht on the other hand became an art sensation.
Albrecht went home to celebrate his success and thinking that it was time for his brother Albert to study art and paint to his heart’s content.
But Albert at the dinner looked at the faces he loved, and then holding his hands close to his right cheek, he said softly, “No, brother. I cannot go to Nuremberg. It is too late for me. Look what four years in the mines have done to my hands! The bones in every finger have been smashed at least once, and lately I have been suffering from arthritis so badly in my right hand that I cannot even hold a glass to return your toast, much less make delicate lines on parchment or canvas with a pen or a brush. No, brother… for me it is too late.”
Albrecht Durer thought, “I can never give back the lost skill of those hands, but I can show my feeling of love and gratitude by painting my brother’s hands as they are now, folded in prayer, to show my appreciation of a noble and unselfish character.”
Albrecht Durer painstakingly drew his brother’s abused hands with palms together and thin fingers stretched skyward. He called his powerful drawing simply “Hands,” but the entire world almost immediately opened their hearts to his great masterpiece and renamed his tribute of love “The Praying Hands.”
The next time you see a copy of that touching creation, take a second look. Let it be your reminder, if you still need one, that no one – no one – ever makes it alone!
Meditation: Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. – Philippians 2:3
You will succeed in Jesus Name!