Becoming What You Were Made To Be
Dear Sutton and Savannah
I really don’t know what you were made to be, but I am in awe of what you have become. The notion of there being one best divine plan for your life just doesn’t make sense. Each decision we make, and every response we may have to any given circumstance, presents multiple pathways for our future. We are participants in mapping the outcome of our life. The poet of Psalm 148 invites all the characters of the outward cosmos and all the characters of the inner life to sing their own unique song of praise; everything in its own way, and every one in their own voice. I hope and pray you never stop singing your unique song in your unique way.
-Dad
Inside Out Lectionary Letters
Year A - First Sunday After Christmas
Readings for December 28, 2025
Isaiah 63:7-9 / Psalm 148 / Hebrews 2:10-18 / Matthew 2:13-23
Summary of Psalm 148
This psalm is part of the closing collection of psalms that includes Psalms 146-150. Some believe that it was written as part of the Jewish return to the promised land following the exile in Babylon. The psalmist invites every part of creation to praise the Creator.
Scripture as Mirror of the Soul
We often consider the Psalms as instructional. They teach us about life, its struggles and its joys, its hardships and its celebrations. They teach us how to pray, how to praise, and how to lament. They invite us to both think and feel. What do they teach us about the poet? How might the poetry reflect the inward journey of the poet, and then what might that lead us to consider in our own inner journey?
The poet takes inanimate objects and invites them to be animated (e.g. sun, moon, stars, heavens, waters, mountains). Maybe the divine is infused into all of creation, and maybe we just don’t have ears to hear the way they sing the song of creativity and life. What are the inner parts represented by these symbols?
What about the shadow parts of our life; the parts tucked away in the unconscious; the sea monsters, the deeps, fire and hail, snow and frost, and stormy wind? Redemption includes all the parts of ourself. And redemption is not a denial, squelching or ignoring of their voice, but rather a balanced integration of the unique song they sing, and gifts they have to offer.
What about the parts within; that animal-like instinctual side, the foundational mountain-like parts, the creative side that takes flight like a bird, the life-giving trees within that bear fruit and give birth to new life, the masculine voice, the feminine voice, the innocent voice of the child, the invincible voice of the youth, the seasoned voice of the middle-aged and the wise voice of the old? They all exist within.
It doesn’t seem that we were ever intended to be one singular voice, but rather a collection of voices or instruments, playing unique notes of melody and harmony, that collectively form a single song of praise. How boring it would be if everyone and everything played the same note. So why should we expect all of the parts within us to play the same note? We are our own orchestra learning to play a beautiful symphony.