Psalm 139:13-18

13 For you formed my inward parts;
    you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.[a]
Wonderful are your works;
    my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
    intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 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.

17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
18 If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
    I awake, and I am still with you.

(ESV)

Contemplation:

Since my youth, I have always appreciated the opportunity to talk to my elders and glimpse life through their eyes.  There is something instructive about seeing the world from the perspective of one who has know many days.  Conversations with my elders sometimes hints at something ahead, unseen, and worth risking more to possess.  What does it mean to know a God whose existence spans many lifetimes?   Who is in fact unbound by time?  It is to see our lives through the lens of eternity and to hold the wisdom that only comes from seeing the beginning an ending of things.  He knows us from the womb to the grave, beyond the context of time.  He knows us down to the elements that comprise our existence both body and soul.  He sees all that we have been, all that we are, and all that we will be.  He knows the number of our days.  We are "fearfully and wonderfully made".  It is awe-inspiring to see the hand that spans time and space lovingly shaping our own existence.

Question:

What does it mean to have a relationship with a God whose existence transcends our lifetimes and the time of our entire universe?

Prayer:

God, we remember today that it is a good and gratitude-invoking experience to sit briefly on the perch of your shoulder and glimpse eternity.  Even if our minds cannot fully comprehend the experience, we know that we have somehow been made wiser, more complete, in our encounter with you. Today your word helps us remember that we are small and you are infinite.  The experience of knowing you, wrests us from our petty ambitions and draws us into joyful risk.  Help us, O God, to live for the eternal.