For it was you who formed my inward parts;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb. (v. 13)
Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
you formed me in my mother’s womb. (MSG)
Jean Vanier the founder of an intimate community for those who have special needs offers an image of what may be described as intimacy. Imagine if you will, stretched out arms and hands cupped as if you are holding a small wounded bird. What will happen if we open our hands fully? The bird will try to flutter its wings, and it will fall and die. Now imagine, what will happen if I close my hand completely? The bird will be crushed and die. An intimate place is like my cupped hand, neither totally open nor totally closed.
This space of the cupped hands neither totally open, nor totally closed is the space I imagine when I think of intimacy. It is also the space I think of when I think of the space in which each of us were created. When the Psalmist says, you formed me “in” my mother’s womb, the cupped hand image appears, and I can’t help but think of an innermost, inward, and intimate space in which each of us were born… a space not too small and not too big, not too tight and not too loose, not too close and not too distant. A space where growth from the inside out can take place. A space where lungs for breathing, brains for thinking, hearts for beating, a space where fingers, toes, fingernails and toenails are formed…from the inside out.
In a world that seems to be outwardly focused on things like the clothes we wear, the houses we live in, the cars we drive I find it refreshing to read the psalmist writing “for it was you who formed my inward parts.” This psalm seems to direct us to the inner, a place of cupped hands.
Prayer: God, help me to find the space of the cupped hand. A space that is perfect for me. Then God show me the ways you would like me to share that space with others. Amen.
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