Into your hands I commend my Spirit. I offer it to you with all the love I have in my heart.
This is the second time in this prayer that we place ourselves into God's hands. I like this image. In the first live we "abandon ourselves." That means we leave ourselves in God's hands, removing all control and influence. Now we commend ourselves, which means to entrust our spirit, our life, into God's hands. That seems like a natural step. If we give ourselves into God's hands, we really need to trust God or we will forever be trying to get it back.
And we do this with all the love we have in our hearts. As I pray this prayer I wonder how much love I have for God on that paticular day. I think some days I offer my life to God with very little felt love. I do it out of mostly duty or "oughtness" or because it is what I am supposed to do. But even on those days, with whatever love I do have, I entrust my life to God. I do notice, however, as I linger on this part of the prayer, I realize even on those days I feel very little love, I have much more love for God than I feel. When I see this, the entrusting myself into God's hands becomes very easy.
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