Unfinished Devotion-March 1

REV. NATALIA TERFA

Psalm 139: 11-16

If I had to choose a theme for this section of Psalm 139, I’d choose the word “knowing.” Over and over we are reminded that God knows you. All of you. From the very beginning of time, to the very end of time. You are known. Even before you were born, God was there. God had a hand in making you YOU. In your becoming. And that becoming continues as you grow and are made new each and every day. God knows that too. Sometimes, even more than we need the reminder that God made us in the first place, that God knows us from beginning to end, we need to hear that God makes wonderful things. Key word - wonderful. This is important. It’s a reminder that we need when our bodies seem less than wonderful to us. When we are sick or struggling or even barely hanging on. You are wonderful. Right now. All of you is wonderful and God knows all of you. Because God made all of you. And here’s the kicker - God didn’t create once and then stop, God is STILL creating. STILL knitting you together when you’re broken. STILL making things new and wonderful. Even when things don’t quite feel that way.

This is a promise that I hold on to when things feel tenuous and shaky in my life. It’s a promise I need when I start to believe God wrote suffering into my “book” (i.e. my life). It’s tempting to blame God for suffering, especially when we read the final verses of this psalm as “God’s plan” - but I think these lines say something different. God wrote my book, my life, because God is the creator. God is the author. God, as creator, as author, knows the beginning and the end. Like I said, this psalm is about knowing. What I put in my life, into my book, God leaves up to me. And in our broken world, where relationships break and hard things exist like loss and violence and pain and illness, God has promised to be with us, constantly and continually making things new. We are not hidden from our God who loves us. We are known. And we are known and loved no matter what chapter in our book we are currently writing. Alpha and Omega. Beginning and End. God is with us, and knows.

Prayer:All-knowing God, thank you for your creative work in the world. Thank you that you never stop creating, including within me. Help me trust that I am wonderfully made, and that you know me and love me, no matter what. Amen.