Psalm 133:1

A few weeks ago, our church walked through a 24 hour day of prayer together, in preparation for the 40 Days of Community campaign. My son Jacob and I signed up for a 1 hour slot, where we met Jesus in the Tulip Street Christian Church prayer room.

Initially, Jacob questioned the whole deal, asking, “How are we going to pray for an HOUR?” It was then that I realized that I have trained my kids to see prayer as that 20 second blurb that we say before we devour our food, and maybe a few seconds more if someone is really sick or something. So while I am looking for opportunities to teach my kids a deeper understanding of prayer, I still had to show Jacob how we could share with Jesus for the remaining 59 minutes and 40 seconds.

Before we went to the prayer room, I printed out Psalm 133:1, a verse that speaks of unity in the Body and what that looks like. The passage reads:

“How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!”

To hear a fresh word from Jesus on how this verse can apply to life in community at Tulip Street, and speak specifically to us in that hour, we practiced a form of meditation known as The Jeweler’s Technique. In short, this practice imagines a passage of Scripture to be a diamond that is held in the Jeweler’s hand, and as it is rotated, the light shines off of each face of the diamond differently, accenting the clarity and cut on each face of the diamond. For us, that meant holding up Psalm 133:1, and looking at each word in the verse, and asking what that word adds to the passage – what do you think of when you consider this particular word? At that point, we wrote down our thoughts on each individual word, then after working through the entire verse, we recombined our thoughts on each separate word into a paragraph that paraphrased for us what Jesus was trying to teach us in that moment in the words of the Psalmist. (If this sounds confusing, it’s really not! Email me if you would like a guide to practice this technique yourself.)

In this post, I wanted to share the paraphrase that Jacob penned. Hearing him read this message from Jesus, to him and our church, using the words of a Psalm written maybe as long ago as 1000 B.C. was a stunning experience for me. It’s my hope that it speaks to your heart as well. Hear the word of the Lord through the pen of an 11 year old . . .

“Open our eyes to all that’s soothing and nice. Let the Kingdom Life equal a true beginning for this Band of Brothers by living life to the fullest as one, moving each other towards the one true goal – Heaven!” ~ Psalm 133:1 (JC’s Version)

The Word of God, for the People of God, Thanks Be to God. AMEN.