Starshine and Clay

won’t you celebrate with me

Lucille Clifton, 1936 - 2010

won’t you celebrate with me
what i have shaped into
a kind of life? i had no model.
born in babylon
both nonwhite and woman
what did i see to be except myself?
i made it up
here on this bridge between
starshine and clay,
my one hand holding tight
my other hand; come celebrate
with me that everyday
something has tried to kill me
and has failed.

If it can be hard to see God's handiwork in the people around us, it's often ten times harder to see the beauty God has stamped on our own lives.  That's especially true for those of us whose experiences and embodiment fall outside cultural norms.  As the poet writes, "everyday something has tried to kill me..."

The apostle Paul writes about these forces of death and their defeat as well.  Take a few minutes this morning with Jesus to meditate on these verses about the life-giving freedom we find in him and the new sense of self.  What does it means to you to be transformed into the image of Jesus?

"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit."

- 2 Cor. 3:17, 18