Friday 3rd July - Hemming

DAILY BYTE

Growing up in a very practical, busy household, shopping for clothing was not a leisurely activity. It was a necessity to be accomplished as quickly and efficiently as possible. The fewer stores you had to enter to accomplish your goal, the better. This meant, however, that perfection in fashion was not exactly highly prized... If a garment fit pretty well, but was not quite perfect, and buying it meant that you didn’t have to search all over creation for something else, the solution was – just hem it, and it will be fine. Hemming a skirt meant reshaping it, cutting off unnecessary bits, and recreating it to fit to your particular body.

The psalmist writes in verse 5 of Psalm 139, “You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me” (NRSV). What does it mean to be “hemmed in”?

It can mean to be confined and besieged or created and fashioned. God, it seems, does both. God confines us and creates us newly every day. From behind us through everything our pasts hold, God disciplines us, teaches us, and fashions us into who we are. But God also goes before us in everything we will become while living and growing in our companionship with God. And in between, we are hemmed – unnecessary parts are cut off and new beauty is created. We live each day, sitting and rising, sewn into the fabric of God’s presence with us and compassion for us.

The Word today says, you “lay your hand upon me.” The Hebrew actually says: you lay your “palm” upon me.

God lays His palms that were pierced upon us every day, knowing that we are imperfect. Knowing that we are tired. Knowing that it is our sin that has pierced those palms. Knowing that God is acquainted with all our ways, and yet, we are still with Him.

All we can do in the face of such love behind and before us and with us presently is praise this God who takes his palms, one of the most sensitive, caring parts of the human body and draws us to Godself with intimacy, loving care, and grace for our insufficiencies.

That is exactly what the psalmist does in this Word from God. The psalmist praises God because all of this reality is “too wonderful” for us. It is so very high that we “cannot attain it.”

You know when I sit down and when I rise up. You know every word that flows from my mouth. You, God, still sit with me, stand with me, weep with me, and proclaim the joy of the resurrection with me.

You, GOD, know who I really am. And you are still with me. Thanks be to God.

FOCUS READING

Psalm 139:5 (NRSV)

You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Loving God, you teach us through our past experiences and offer grace for the ways we have failed. You show Yourself to us in this present moment through conversations with other people and through your Word. And, You promise always to be with us, no matter who we are or what we’ve said and done. From all sides You hem us in. With your hemming, recreating, transforming love, create something new in us and through us in every moment of this day. Help us to feel Your shaping, comforting palm on us, so that we will be empowered to reach out with Your presence and love to others. Your promises to do this are truly too wonderful for us to comprehend, and we thank you. Amen.