Pay it Forward

Several years ago, Ann Moore, who serves on the Dial Hope board of directors, shared with me a great story about the famous artist Henri Matisse. In his later years, Matisse became very ill and required the care of a regular nurse. He was assigned to a young student nurse named Monique Bourgeois. Monique was fun-loving, joyful, and gregarious. And over time, she and the artist developed a friendship.

As it turns out, Monique was also a person of deep faith, while, Matisse himself was not. But through their friendship, his own spirituality began to deepen.

Later, after Monique went on to enter a community of Dominican nuns, she shared with Matisse of her community’s wish to build a chapel. And, she asked for his help. Matisse responded to her request by giving everything he had. He later wrote:

“I began with the profane and now, in the evening of my days, I am ending quite naturally with the divine. This work took four years of intensive labor to the exclusion of all else, and it is the culmination of my whole working life. In spite of its imperfections, I regard it as my masterpiece.”

And a beautiful masterpiece it is! I can only imagine how many lives have been nourished and inspired over the last 50 plus years as they visited this chapel.

Matisse’s life was touched by a single person. In turn, he paid it forward. He put everything he had into a final masterpiece. That masterpiece in turn has touched the hearts and souls of many, many lives…

My friend Roger Kunkel would call this the “Ripple Effect of Generosity.”

I wonder how you in your own life have been touched by others. And I wonder, how you in turn are passing that on.

Let us pray: I thank you, O God, for those people who have made a difference in our lives. As we have been blessed, help us in turn to find ways to be a blessing to others. Amen.