This painting was made in response to the scripture found in Doctrine and Covenants 81:5, also the theme of an art competition for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 2025:

“Wherefore, be faithful; stand in the office which I have appointed unto you; succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees.”—D&C 81:5

In contemplating what it means to ‘lift up the hands which hang down,’ it occurred to me that sometimes ‘lifting the hands which hang down’ means trying to lift up your own. I believe that it takes hard work to be happy, or to set aside your sadness. It is much easier to let your arms hang down. But God wants us to learn how to lift our arms up, and not only our arms, but our hearts. While trying to listen to God on how He wanted me to proceed on this painting, I was directed to the first part of Doctrine and Covenants 25:13, which reads “Wherefore, lift up thy heart and rejoice.” Here was Heavenly Father telling Emma Smith to lift up her heart, indicating that it was something she had to choose to do herself.

This made me interpret the theme of the art competition to mean a type of service towards oneself. The footnotes on this verse also led me to Lamentations 3:41: “Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens,” which became the anthem for this piece. It is a choice and often times a struggle to lift up our hearts and hands, but God wants us to do so for a reason. In the piece, a transparent hand reaches down and grasps the reaching arm, alluding to God reciprocating such an effort. God does not leave us reaching alone.