Knitted together

O LORD, you have searched me and known me!
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.
You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.
Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.
For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them! Psalm 139:1-17

She goes in the Hudson River in a short time. All the months of training and fund raising. All the work and the workouts, missing weekends for practice. Emily is doing this to challenge herself and so that others might have chance at life. Since she was a very little girl she loved the water and nothing could keep her out. Despite the rough waters and the challenges that are the storied Hudson River, she is ready to give it her all for the sake of others.

The psalmist reminds us today that God has formed each of us, body, mind and spirit since we were in our mother's wombs. In the dark mystery that is life, God brings forth magnificent people, with hearts of gold and spirits of lions. Formed day by day with love and compassion, we are molded and modeled, not for our own pleasure and delight but for the renewing and healing of the world. God gives us such capacity from the beginning. And God goes with us into the fray, into the deep and throbbing river and into all the places in between.

Today, I ask God to help us all remember how loved and known we truly are. May each of us rejoice in our Creator, who makes each of us for the blessing of others. May we use what we have been given this day for love - for the care and feeding of our communities. And may we know, as we give ourselves away, as we share what we have been given, God is truly with us.