Our Master Gardener,

Creator of all, you named me into being
stitched me together in my mother’s womb
and called me good.
May I remember–
deeper than in my bones–
may I remember in the depths of my soul:
I am good. I am valuable. I am loved.
Because I forget over and over,
and in the forgetting I follow any path
and lose the very person you created me to be.
So may I remember
every day
every hour
every minute
every moment
because you, oh creator, loved me first.
Because in you, oh creator, I am held.
Because in you, oh creator, I am found.

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Psalm 139: 13-16 Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother’s womb. I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in adoration—what a creation! You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, the days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day.

1 John 4:19 We, though, are going to love—love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first.