“For I am persuaded
that your steadfast love
is established forever;
you have set your faithfulness
firmly in the heavens.” Psalm 89:2
Reflection: There is something that makes me catch my breath when I see a great blue heron in flight. Its freedom perhaps. The graceful line of its body. The slow, powerful push and lift of its wings, as if it is in no great hurry to leave and has all the time in the world to get to its destination. As if gliding through skies is enough.
As I reflected on this photo and these psalm verses, other sayings wanted to join the conversation with their threads of birds and skies, faithfulness and forever, leaving and arriving, freedom and promise. I have come to no tidy conclusion today; follow a thread of thought, take your time, and arrive at your own destination:
Psalmist: I am persuaded that your steadfast love is established forever.
Apostle Paul: I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height , nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
Psalmist: You, God, have set your faithfulness firmly in the heavens.
Jesus: And remember, I am with you always to the end of the age (spoken as he was “leaving”).
David Whyte in the poem “The Journey” (in “House of Belonging”):
Above the mountains/ the geese turn into/ the light again/
painting their/ black silhouettes/ on an open sky.
Sometimes everything/ has to be/ enscribed across/ the heavens
so you can find/ the one line/ already written/ inside you.
Sometimes it takes/ a great sky/ to find that
first, bright/ and indescribable/ wedge of freedom/ in your own heart.
Sometimes with/ the bones of the black/ sticks left when the fire/ has gone out
someone has written/ something new/ in the ashes/ of your life.
You are not leaving,/ even as the light/ fades quickly now,/ you are arriving.
Suggestions:
1. Take this verse with you and ponder its meaning for you throughout the day. What do you notice? What do you wonder? Which thread are you following? Would you add someone to the conversation?
2. Or read all of Psalm 89 and be surprised at where this psalm finally arrives!!
3. Or comment with a photo of your own that is a window of this verse’s meaning for you.
Tomorrow’s psalm will be Psalm 90.
Starting January 1, 2016, for 150 days I am posting a daily psalm verse with a photo that is a visual meditation on the text for me. Each day a verse from the next psalm is chosen until all 150 psalms have been featured. To participate you may subscribe to my blog at https://elainedent.net or “friend” me on Facebook and watch for the daily links to blog posts. Disclaimer: I am not a photographer and most of the photos are from a cell phone or small camera while hiking the Appalachian Trail or the C&O Canal/Great Allegheny Passage Trail.
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