Perfectly Knit

(I composed this entry before the previous two, but am only posting it now, as I wanted it to go last.)


Poetry Speaks calendar, today:

Of Three or Four in a Room
By Yehuda Amichai

Of three or four in a room
there is always one who stands beside the window.
He must see the evil among thorns
and the fires on the hill.
And how people who went out of their houses whole
are given back in the evening like small change.
Of three or four in a room
there is always one who stands beside the window,
his dark hair above his thoughts.
Behind him, words.
And in front of him, voices wandering without a knapsack,
hearts without provisions, prophecies without water,
large stones that have been returned
and stay sealed, like letters that have no
address and no one to receive them.


Mum bought The Prince of Egypt for Sara yesterday. Brings back memories, that movie, not the least of which is the Oscar-winning theme song, 'When You Believe'. Thinking of Moses, I can't help but wonder:

Why did God allow the Israelites to suffer for four centuries before saving them? Why did God subject Moses to exile, only to summon him at the age of 80? Why did God lead Moses and the Israelites to the edge of the Promised Land, only to tell Moses he couldn't enter because of a stupid mistake? Why did God put up with Moses' excuses?

But these are merely speculative questions. What actually stirred me just now, was the sequence in the movie where Miriam (Moses' sister) watches the journey of the papyrus basket containing Moses. The biblical account in Exodus 1 and 2 doesn't say much, but the movie suggests that it had a rough ride into the hands of Pharaoh's daughter.

Pharaoh ordered that all the Hebrew boys be thrown into the Nile; they were to be drowned. In that sense, Moses followed suit. But God delivered him, and perhaps Moses himself was meant to be a sign of deliverance. The symbolism of the Nile seems to stretch beyond that, as it also reminds me of baptism, which represents death and resurrection.


As I think about purpose and value and the whole 'what's-the-point-of-living?' question, I am reminded of Psalm 139:

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

--Psalm 139:13-16 (NIV)

The piano tuner came to school today (the owner of the centre where Valerie used to study ages ago). Looking at the inside of the piano, the word 'knit' comes to mind; the verses above seem to go very well with the picture below.