My body was not hidden from you,
While I was being made in secret.
—Psalm 139:14

Our bodies were not hidden from God when we were being knit together in our mothers’ wombs. Our bodies were not hidden from God as we entered earthly life and began to be (as the Celtic tradition puts it) “guests of the world.” Our bodies were not hidden from God when illness came to be a permanent resident in our lives.

Indeed, we are ever held in the kindly gaze of love. God in Christ sees and knows our physical afflictions. God in Christ walks with us to the doctor’s office, to the hospital, to the chemotherapy treatment, to the surgical suite.

In the depths of your being, right now, this day, God in Christ abides. In the depths of your soul, God in Christ intimately knows the pattern of your days and the disruptions of your illness. In the depths of your cells, so carefully crafted and so lovingly designed, this God who is your Source and your End participates and knows all that you endure, all that you hope for, all that you live with.

May you rest in that assurance, and receive every consolation that Christ has to offer.

Gracious Christ, may I ever remember that I am not hidden from You, and that whether I know it or not, You are with me every step of the way. Amen.

Practice: <listen>

Reference Note: All  psalms are taken from the psalter in The Book of Common Prayer, 1979.