Daily Manna · Day 248 · September 5
Written Before Birth
“Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.”
A potter's bench at the end of the day. A lump of clay under a damp cloth, no shape to it yet, nothing you could name. And a drawing pinned to the wall above it.
The word David uses for himself here is golem, and it occurs nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible. Our translators gave us substance, yet being unperfect: a thing rolled up, unfinished, not yet anything. God's eyes were on that. And then the order, which is the whole point of the verse. In thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. The writing came before the members existed. The drawing was pinned up before there was clay on the bench.
Notice also what the unfinished state did not do. It did not embarrass him and it did not make him look away. Thine eyes did see. He was watching at the stage you would not photograph.
Lord, you looked at me when there was nothing of me to look at. There is a part of me still under the cloth, half made and behind schedule, and I have been showing you the tidy version instead. Look at that one. You have been looking at it far longer than I have. Amen.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 248 is Entangled Again (Galatians 5:1).