Fearfully and Wonderfully Made: A Meditation on Psalm 139
Religious
Coalition for Reproductive Choice
October 23-25,
2012 Board Meeting
(the Rev'd Dr)
Elizabeth Kaeton
We are
fearfully and wonderfully made.
Holy, gracious and loving God
You are wise beyond our knowing
You have gifted us with
intelligence, memory, reason, and skill.
You fill our lives with
experiences in which we
may freely use these gifts.
We are fearfully and wonderfully made.
Before we were born, you knew us.
You know our deepest thoughts,
our fiercest passions,
our desperate longings,
our ancient hurts,
our wildest dreams and
our strongest fears.
We are fearfully and wonderfully made.
When we were being shaped and formed
in the secrets of our mothers' womb
You also knit together in us strong threads of
liberation and justice,
will and grace,
and set us free to live our lives
as human beings fully alive.
We are fearfully and wonderfully made.
We are complex beings,
living complicated lives.
Give us the courage to
discern what is right
and what is good,
knowing that the two
may not always be the same.
We are fearfully and wonderfully made.
Help us - and help us help others -
to respect all of life
especially the lives of women
who have been denied justice
their intelligence questioned
their choices limited
their freedom denied.
We are fearfully and wonderfully made.
Inspire our minds
fire our spirits, and
strengthen our wills
that justice and compassion
may always be our
companions on this journey
and we may know your peace.
We are fearfully and wonderfully made.
What a beautiful prayer. Blessings to you and to the important work of RCRC.
ReplyDeleteAnd all the work you do, my dear. Please feel free to share widely.
ReplyDeleteI love this as prayer. Something you may not know. When I was in the Public Practice of Theology class in the fall 2003, you were one of the instructors. You did a presentation on prayer that brought all that I knew of prayer into focus and set me on a path of intercessory prayer I had never imagined. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Susan. I do remember you but I don't remember that lecture. Probably because it came from my heart and not my head. You know. Like prayer.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it is just me, i have wondered what the writer of the psalm meant by fearfully made? Thanks for sharing, as you often do, made me ponder, revist scripture, and challenge me in thought and prayers.
ReplyDeleteHi, Liz - My understanding has always been that "fear" in this context, is a way of saying "awe" - it's like something so awe-ful that it's beyond human comprehension and may inspire fear in the heart. It's complicated but that's the really simplistic gist of it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback. i will have to reread the scripture with that in mind, as well as your prayer. Again for the insight.
ReplyDeleteWonderful - Am printing out for "quiet times".
ReplyDelete