Oof, it's been a while. Well, we've been locked down and quarantined. Doubly quarantined, now, because it's early fire season already and we are not going out into the poisonous Northern California air. I was unable to travel to be at my sister's birth because of covid. Instead I wrote her songs and sent them to be with her. She requested two verses that she wanted to meditate on as she got ready to give birth:
Romans 8:19-23: For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.
Amos 5:24: Let justice roll down like water, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
Her child was safely born, to the sound of these songs: Stella Justice. She is named for the justice we all yearn for, as this earth groans under the weight of a global pandemic, and the centuries of oppression and exploitation which make this disease disproportionately devastating in developing countries and communities of color.
The verse from Romans was also chosen by my Presbytery as a touchstone verse for our anti-racism work. At the end of a recent zoom call we all committed to the labor and work ahead of us and someone called out "yeah! We're like doulas for justice!"
I share the songs here for anyone who would like to use them-- in physical labor, or in societal labor. Sheet music is linked below.
And PS you've got to read my sister's birth story.
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