Here
is a thoughtful blessing from Jan Richardson’s Painted Prayerbook website. It is inspired by the suggested
scripture readings for Epiphany 3B (Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18, 1 Samuel 3:1-10, 1
Corinthians 6:12-20, John 1:43-51).
Jan
writes: “With each passage, the
lectionary this week presents us with a God who calls to us, seeks us out,
draws close to us, inhabits us. Again and again the word know appears, its
repetition pressing upon us how serious God is about wanting to know us, and us
to know God.
This God who calls to
us, who fashions us within the womb, who inhabits our own bodies, who
recognizes us in the midst of our daily lives: for those of us who need some
breathing room in our lives, this God can fairly overwhelm. Do we want to be
this sought, this known from the inside out?
Yet the God we see in
these passages is not an intruder invading our lives by stealth or by force.
Nor—though too many have absorbed such an image—is God’s persistent presence
with us a form of surveillance designed to keep track of everything we do
wrong. Somehow, this God who pervades all of creation, down to our very cells,
manages to offer a spacious hospitality that calls to us but does not confine
us; that continually invites but will not force us; that simply asks us to see
and hear and know the One who is ever in our midst and in our own selves.
This week, this day,
how are you listening? Where are you looking? What holy space are you making
for God in yourself? How are you opening yourself to the God who wants to know
and be known by you?”
Blessing for Knowing
(inspired by Psalm
139:1-6, 13-18, 1 Samuel 3:1-10,
1 Corinthians 6:12-20,
John 1:43-51).
To
receive this blessing,
it
may feel like
you
are peeling back
every
layer of flesh,
exposing
every nerve,
baring
each bone
that
has kept you upright.
It
may seem
every
word is written
on
the back of
something
that your life
depends
upon,
that
to read this blessing
would
mean tearing away
what
has helped you
remain
intact.
Be
at peace.
It
will not be
as
painful as that,
though
I cannot say
it
will be easy
to
accept this blessing,
written
as it is
upon
your true frame,
inscribed
on the skin
you
were born
to
live in.
The
habits that keep you
from
yourself,
the
misconceptions
others
have of you,
the
unquestioned limits
you
have allowed,
the
smallness you have
squeezed
into:
these
are not
who
you are.
This
blessing simply wants
all
this to fall away.
This
blessing—
and
it is stubborn on this point,
I
assure you—
desires
you to know yourself
as
it knows you,
to
let go of every layer
that
is not you,
to
release each thing
that
you hide behind,
to
open your eyes
to
see what it sees:
how
this blessing
has
blazed in you
since
before you were born;
how
it has sustained you
when
you could not see it;
how
it haunts you,
prickling
beneath your skin
to
let it shine forth
in
full and unstinting
measure;
how
it begins
and
ends
with
your true name.
~
written by Jan Richardson, and posted on her website, The Painted Prayerbook. http://paintedprayerbook.com/2015/01/12/epiphany-2-known/
