Tuesday, July 21, 2020

Scripture for the Day
Psalm 139:13-18

For it was you who formed my inward parts;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.
In your book were written
all the days that were formed for me,
when none of them as yet existed.
How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
I try to count them—they are more than the sand;
I come to the end—I am still with you.

Sometimes, we just need to hear these familiar, comforting words. We just need to know how special we are to God. Knit together. Made in secret. Intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Beheld by God, even as yet unformed. God knew and loved us before we even had substance. How great a love.

When we feel our own worth dipping into existential dread, as can happen in this time of physical separation from one another, this psalm is a reminder of just how loved we are and just how worthy we are of that love. Truly, this psalm teaches us that God loves us each of us, as individuals, exactly how we were created, beyond any measure we could ever know.

But what if we thought of this beyond the individual level for a moment? What if we assigned this same worthiness of love to each individual we know?

Think about a loved one such as a parent, grandparent, aunt or uncle, close friend, or mentor. Place their name into the psalm and say the psalm out loud as a prayer of thanksgiving for them.

Now think of an enemy such as a bully from your school days, an estranged relative, someone who sinned against you. Insert that person’s name into the psalm. How is that different? What feelings does that well up within you? Yes, God even knit that person together in the womb. Yes, that person is fearfully and wonderfully made. Yes, that person was, too, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Even as you hold your enemies’ belovedness, your enemies’ names, in this same love and intimacy with God, know that God does not call us to dwell in danger. In the face of emotional or physical abuse, in the face of estrangement and hurt from others, hold your own belovedness so tightly that you remember you are worthy to receive from others some kind of love that strives toward the love God expresses for you in this psalm.

Now think of someone in the news. Think of our Black and Brown sisters and brothers, and place some of their names in this Psalm:

For it was you who formed George Floyd’s inward parts;
you knit him together in his mother’s womb.

I praise you, for Breonna Taylor was fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
that she knew very well.

Ahmaud Arbury’s frame was not hidden from you,
when he was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes beheld Sandra Bland’s unformed substance.

In your book were written
all the days that were formed for Eric Garner,
when none of them as yet existed.

As we place in more names, we see:

How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
I try to count them—they are more than the sand;
I come to the end—I am still with you.

How vast is the sum of God’s love. How vast is the sum of God’s love. How vast is the sum of God’s love.