Meditations:
Psalm 139: A David Psalm
1-6 God, investigate my life;
get all the facts firsthand.
I’m an open book to you;
even from a distance, you know what I’m thinking.
You know when I leave and when I get back;
I’m never out of your sight.
You know everything I’m going to say
before I start the first sentence.
I look behind me and you’re there,
then up ahead and you’re there, too—
your reassuring presence, coming and going.
This is too much, too wonderful—
I can’t take it all in!
7-12 Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit?
to be out of your sight?
If I climb to the sky, you’re there!
If I go underground, you’re there!
If I flew on morning’s wings
to the far western horizon,
You’d find me in a minute—
you’re already there waiting!
Then I said to myself, “Oh, he even sees me in the dark!
At night I’m immersed in the light!”
It’s a fact: darkness isn’t dark to you;
night and day, darkness and light, they’re all the same to you.
13-16 Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
you formed me in my mother’s womb.
I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking!
Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
I worship in adoration—what a creation!
You know me inside and out,
you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
before I’d even lived one day.
26th Week in Ordinary Time
You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb. (Psalm 139:13)
What makes babies so delightful? Science suggests that a baby’s large, round eyes and chubby cheeks trigger an instinctual reaction in its parents. Almost automatically, we smile. We feel a drive to care for and protect the child, to hold him or her close and shower love on this innocent little person that God has entrusted to us. Toy makers use this knowledge to their advantage: for example, eighty-six-year-old Mickey Mouse has gotten “younger” through the years as his head and eyes were drawn bigger and his ears rounder to make him look more appealing.
Of course, this isn’t the whole story. We savor each stage of our children’s growth. We still beam with pride as our daughters become mothers, navigate morning sickness, and fall in love with their own children. We marvel as our sons tackle the challenges of fatherhood. Simply because they are our children, we feel an unbreakable bond, even when relations between us are strained.
If earthly parents can feel so connected to their children, imagine how much God delights in you—even when you aren’t particularly delighting in him! Think of Job in today’s first reading. After enduring disaster upon disaster, he has taken up his case against God. As Job sees it, God owes him an explanation for the way he has treated him, and he will not rest until God answers for himself. But God, ever the loving Father, patiently works to set Job straight. He loves this son of his no matter what, and he will not rest until Job is at peace.
Just as he was for Job, God is there for you. He is watching over you, showering you with love, and pouring out grace as you face the challenges of your life. Even if you can’t see him right now, a time will come, as it came for Job, when you will be able to look back and see that your heavenly Father has never left your side. You are his child, and he can’t help but smile every time he sees you. So try to relax in his gaze today and feel his delight in you.
“Lord, help me grasp your love for me. Father, I believe that you delight in me. By your Spirit, deepen my faith today.” Amen!
Job 38: God Confronts Job
Have You Gotten to the Bottom of Things?
38 And now, finally, God answered Job from the eye of a violent storm. He said:
12-15 “And have you ever ordered Morning, ‘Get up!’
told Dawn, ‘Get to work!’
So you could seize Earth like a blanket
and shake out the wicked like cockroaches?
As the sun brings everything to light,
brings out all the colors and shapes,
The cover of darkness is snatched from the wicked—
they’re caught in the very act!
16-18 “Have you ever gotten to the true bottom of things,
explored the labyrinthine caves of deep ocean?
Do you know the first thing about death?
Do you have one clue regarding death’s dark mysteries?
And do you have any idea how large this earth is?
Speak up if you have even the beginning of an answer.
19-21 “Do you know where Light comes from
and where Darkness lives
So you can take them by the hand
and lead them home when they get lost?
Why, of course you know that.
You’ve known them all your life,
grown up in the same neighborhood with them!
40: Job Answers God
I’m Ready to Shut Up and Listen
3-5 Job answered:
“I’m speechless, in awe—words fail me.
I should never have opened my mouth!
I’ve talked too much, way too much.
I’m ready to shut up and listen.”
Luke 10:13-14 “Doom, Chorazin! Doom, Bethsaida! If Tyre and Sidon had been given half the chances given you, they’d have been on their knees long ago, repenting and crying for mercy. Tyre and Sidon will have it easy on Judgment Day compared to you.
15 “And you, Capernaum! Do you think you’re about to be promoted to heaven? Think again. You’re on a mudslide to hell.
16 “The one who listens to you, listens to me. The one who rejects you, rejects me. And rejecting me is the same as rejecting God, who sent me.”
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