Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam [top] next to the sketch he drew in a letter to friend Giovanni da Pistoia between 1509 and 1511 [bottom]. Courtesy of Adriano Marinazzo.

Dustin M. Regul's "Sifting." I n Michelangelo's painting "The Creation of Adam," reclining Adam, his left hand listlessly outstretched, awaits God's animating touch.