Read Psalm 146:5-10.
Uphold
Recently, I received a picture from friends on the north eastern coast of Northern Ireland. The picture was of my friend standing next to her 12-foot tall hollyhock. The hollyhock is freestanding in their back garden, which they plant every spring. Hollyhocks are known to grow to an average height of six to eight feet tall, especially if they are grown against a fence or a wall. This one has no support except for its roots in the ground and the sky above its head. It is upheld by creation as we all are.
As I ponder this Advent and the words of Psalm 146, I am leaning into verse seven. In the NIV, we are told that God upholds; in the NRSV, God lifts up; in the CEB, God gives justice. I am drawn to the way the psalm changes, based on the translation, and yet the word upholds feels tender in this season of darkness and light as we allow God’s promises to uphold us in this time.
This spring, I worked with a Diné (Navajo) medicine woman, and she stated: “The Divine is the Creator of Movement and Measure. Every single particle of creation has God given space, we are all under the Creator’s care and it is a great responsibility. I am five feet tall, round, and a medicine woman. My people have been oppressed, and I have a voice to speak and a story to tell.”
What is your measure and movement? How are you upheld and how do you make room to uphold?
Pray
Creator of Movement and Measure, uphold creation and me this day. Amen.
Gretchen Sausville
Cultivator of Joy
Member at Large, Presbytery of Denver
Words for Waiting 