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, 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. (Psalm 139:13-18)
The first thought that comes to mind is that David was a poet. He composed songs,
and in poetry and music, figurative speech is often used. He probably knew that
babies aren’t formed in the depths of the earth, except in the sense that God
formed man from the earth.
But
that’s not the point of this passage. It’s not about science, it’s about
relationship. Have you ever knitted? It’s been decades, but I know it’s tedious,
repetitive, and takes a lot of time and attention. I haven’t woven – I’d like
to – but I read a novel about weavers, and a tapestry involved the work of at least
six people and several months labor. We know it takes an average of 40 weeks
for a baby to develop from conception to birth. Now, here’s one I know about!
It took me over four years to take Earth Fire from idea to book sitting
on my shelf, and Soul Fire at least three years. Writing is just as involved as a
tapestry and even after it’s initially written, a writer goes over it, editing
it. I just spent the month of April going through my work in progress four
times fixing errors, smoothing rough spots, patching plot holes…. It’s tedious,
repetitive, and takes a lot of time and attention.
This is the
sort of attention with which David credits God. In fact, he takes it even
further. All David’s days were written in God’s book before David even saw the
light of day. Again, going back to the work it takes to be an author. One of
the challenges of writing is to bring together a whole integrated story. One of
the problems I’ve faced as I start into the third book of a trilogy is the fact
that while the story is about one character, there are other characters whose
story is interwoven with hers. Some have wandered off into their own lives.
Others, especially a few, I feel the need to bring their story to a satisfying
end, and I only have one book left in which to do so!
God has a
far more challenging story, an epic saga to put all the other epic sagas to shame. Its hero is Jesus Christ, but
there are billions of characters who play a tiny role. For each of them, He
writes a mini-saga, weaving them into the lives of a few of the billions of
others, and all of them in and out through the story of Jesus.
This is one
of the great blessings of being a writer, a poet, an artist, or even a crafter.
You have the chance to do in a tiny way what God does in a universal way, and
thereby catch the tiniest glimpses of how awesome God is.
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