Wonderfully Made

For my friend Eileen, who is very sick, and for you and for me, too. The beauty of a personal God.

"O Lord, you have searched me and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord.

"You have hemmed me in--behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

"Where can I go from your Spirit?
where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make me bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.

"For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

"How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake, I am still with you.

"Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting."

Psalm 139:1-10, 13-18, 23-24

The Beauty of Words

Words are powerful. They can carry beauty or ugliness, joy or sorrow. They can build up or tear down.

Some of my favorite words come from fiction, nonfiction, essays, poetry, the Bible. I'll share those passages here in future posts. But sometimes my favorite words come in the form of an email or a card from a family member. Sometimes they are spoken over the phone or face to face by a friend. 

The right word at the right time can bring a smile, brighten a mood, touch a heart. Maybe it's because I'm a writer and speaker, maybe it's because I'm a sensitive soul, but I try to be a person who has the right word at the right time. I try to handle words with care. I want to be known as a person who uses words to help, not hurt. I don't always succeed, of course. Sometimes I wish I'd swallowed some words instead of letting them go. But when I do say or write something that lifts someone up, I am lifted up too. And that to me is just one facet of the beauty of words.