Framed Words

We are journeying verse by verse through Psalm 139. To read last week’s reflection, click here.

O LORD, you examine me and know me.

You know when I sit down and when I get up;

even from far away you understand my motives.

You carefully observe me when I travel or when I lie down to rest;

you are aware of everything I do.

Certainly my tongue does not frame a word

without you, O LORD, being thoroughly aware of it.

Psalm 139: 4

I’ve seen all kinds of art in frames.

In my home, there is an oil pastel of a pear, a glass, and a bottle, created by our son just before his fifth birthday, that won awards from judges who couldn’t believe the artist’s age. Above my desk is a tiny, delicate gondola stitched in lace and encircled in gold. Each time I sit down at our kitchen table, a bouquet of flowers, framed simply and painted in oil by my mother-in-love, reminds me of her ability to see beauty. In our entry hall, Saint Francis’s famous greeting framed in olive wood meets each visitor: Peace and Good.

Then there is the profanity series, mounted tall and angry on the walls of a local modern art museum, featuring the artists’ outcries against war. Beautiful in its terrible honesty, it tells the truth.

We are all artists, wielding our paintbrushes through the power of our tongues.

Death and life are in the power of the tongue,

and those who love its use will eat its fruit.

Proverbs 18:21

With words, we create life or death. We’ve been entrusted with that great power by the One who created the world with words, the One who is, Himself, the Word.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was fully God. The Word was with God in the beginning.

John 1:1-2

It should be no surprise that every word we frame is known to the Word before we frame it.

I wonder what would happen if we practiced pausing before throwing that flaming word into a frame. Pausing to ask the Word if this word we are burning to speak is worthy of gilding. Surely He knows, and He will help us choose wisely.

What if we saw ourselves as living art galleries, exhibiting the work of the Master Word Framer? How might this transform the world? #words Share on X

We have the potential to paint life into this drab, poly-traumatized world today. Don’t you want to? I do.

Let’s practice pausing with the Word before we frame our words.

Lord, use my tongue to paint life into the world. Amen.

 

@audreycfrank