She’s Calling: A Juneteenth Lectio on Joy, Wisdom, and the Voice from the Gate
A lectio divina and two-way prayer for Trinity Sunday and the sacred remembering of freedom Proverbs 8:1–4, 22–31
Written for the Kaleidoscope Lectio Collection, Sarah Skinner, June 2025
What if the Spirit is already speaking to you through laughter, through memory, through the places you’ve forgotten to look?
Proverbs 8 offers us not a doctrine, but a voice: a voice of joy, of creation, and of deep remembering.
This week’s reflection invites us to sit with Proverbs 8, Wisdom’s own voice, and with the deep echo of Juneteenth, a day that reminds us that freedom is sacred, even when delayed.
These two observances, Trinity Sunday and Juneteenth, call us into sacred memory, relationship, and liberation. They ask us: What does it mean to be made in the image of a God who dances in joyful communion—and to be free not only in law, but in spirit?
This reflection is shaped by two interwoven practices: lectio divina, the sacred reading of scripture, and two-way prayer, a conversational listening and response to the Holy One. This is a a public offering of devotion inviting the Holy Spirit into the writing itself. This is prayer on the page.
The questions follow the Kaleidoscope Institute’s Lectio model. We invite you to engage them with tenderness and joy. Let Wisdom surprise you.
We begin with sacred reading
(As part of this practice, you will read this text three times)
Scripture (NRSV): Proverbs 8:1–4, 22–31
“Does not wisdom call, and does not understanding raise her voice? … The Lord created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago… I was beside him, like a master worker; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always.”
Sacred Echo (Spirit-Breathed Re-Weaving)
Before we continue: Sometimes fresh language helps us hear ancient words anew. The Sacred Echo below is not a replacement for the scripture above, but a doorway. This an invitation to encounter the Spirit still breathing through the text.
We also honor that some may prefer to stay with the traditional translation, and that is good too.
The Message: Proverbs 8:1–4, 22–31
“Do you hear Lady Wisdom calling? Can you hear Madame Insight raising her voice? … God sovereignly made me—the first, the basic—before he did anything else… I was right there with him, making sure everything fit. Day after day I was there, with my joyful applause, always enjoying his company, delighted with the world of things and creatures, happily celebrating the human family.”
First Reading: Listening to Scripture with Kaleidoscope Bible Sharing Questions:
Begin by reading the scripture slowly.
Let the words wash over you.
Notice what calls to you.What word, phrase, or image stands out to you?
Offered Reflection: A Dialogue in Joy
Seeker: The word that stood out to me was “delight.”
And I remembered what you taught me, beloved, about the Hebrew word שָׂחַק (sachaq). It doesn’t mean “rejoicing” in a quiet, dignified sense. It means to laugh, to play, to dance, to tease, to delight in wild, embodied freedom.
Holy One: Yes. This joy isn’t passive. It’s sacred defiance. It’s Isaac’s name—born from Sarah’s laughter (Genesis 21:6). It’s the sound of children playing in restored streets (Zechariah 8:5). It’s lovers teasing in the safety of love (Genesis 26:8). It’s the mocking of empires by the free and the wild (Psalm 2:4).
Joy says: You didn’t erase me. Joy says: I remember who I am. Joy says: This body, this breath, this dance—I claim them.
Seeker: When enslaved people danced in the woods after midnight, when they sang songs laced with maps, when they braided freedom into each other’s hair— Wisdom rejoiced.
Holy One: She was there. Laughing, weeping, dancing beside them. This is not Wisdom as stoic teacher. This is Wisdom as joy incarnate. This is Wisdom laughing with Creator, playing at the edge of the cosmos, rejoicing in the texture of clay, rivers, stars, and skin.
Seeker: You said to me once: “Wisdom was not an afterthought. She was there at the start.” So when I read “The Lord created me at the beginning of his work,” I hear you whisper:
Wisdom is older than empire. Older than hierarchy. Older than every gate that ever tried to lock someone out.
Holy One: And she is not finished. She’s still playing. Still laughing. Still whispering: Remember.
Second Reading: Listening for the Spirit’s Invitation
Where is Wisdom already waiting for you to listen? Not just to teach you something new, but to remind you what you already knew before fear taught you to forget?
Offered Reflection: A Dialogue of Remembrance
Seeker: There’s something powerful about remembering that the people of Galveston were already free before anyone told them. Juneteenth isn’t just about the day the news arrived. It’s about the truth that had already been spoken, and delayed.
Sometimes I think we wait for someone else to tell us we’re free. We wait to be told we’re holy. We wait for a sign, a letter, a law. But Wisdom already knows.
Holy One: She does. She’s in the laughter the wind carries through the trees. In the green shoots rising through concrete. In the long ache of stolen time. In the holy rage of being told: you are free—but not yet.
Seeker: She already knew. She knew in the hush-hush kitchen whispers. She knew in the map-laced songs. She knew in every breath of defiance braided into cornrows. She knew in the memory that said: This body, this breath, this life—I claim them.
Holy One: Wisdom was waiting in the flame. You forgot you were divine because you made yourself small for the comfort of others. But Wisdom never forgot.
She is rising in every place where people have stopped asking for permission to be free. She’s not whispering anymore. She’s laughing. She’s dancing.
So maybe the Spirit isn’t asking: “What do you believe?” Maybe she’s asking: “Are you ready to laugh again?”
Seeker: I think I am. I think joy is calling me home.
Holy One: Then hear this: Wisdom is not waiting to teach you something new. Wisdom is reminding you of what you already knew long before fear crept in. Long before someone said: “You are not free until we say so.”
This week, what would it look like to live as if you were already free? Not someday. Not once the policy changes. Not when the gate is opened. But now.
Third Reading: Offering Your Voice
Read the text a third time. Sit with it. Breathe with it. Reflect on the question: What is the Holy One calling you to do, be, or change?
What would it look like to trust that Wisdom wants to speak with you? That the voice calling from the gates is not there to shame you, but to guide you, to play with you, to build something holy with you?
What systems still silence Wisdom’s voice in you, or around you? And what might happen if you opened your life to her again?
Offered Reflection:
Seeker: You told me joy is not just a reward. You told me that joy is part of the healing. And I think that’s what I’m being called to do. To play more. To remember that even in sacred work, I can laugh with the Holy One. And let that be enough.
This week, I hear the call to joy, not as escapism, but as resistance. I hear: Let your joy rise. Let it be medicine. Let it be defiance. Let it be the song that says: “We are not forgotten.”
Holy One: I’m being called to speak without shrinking. Not to demand space, but to take my seat with you as an equal flame. I’m not calling people to become perfect. I’m calling them to become whole. And joy is a part of that wholeness.
Joy is the healing. The laughter after long silence. The play that returns you to your body. You are not stealing anything by saying this. You are returning something.
Let joy accompany your truth-telling. Let joy be the healing work of liberation.
Joy is not an afterthought. Joy is not a side dish. Joy is Wisdom’s first voice. Joy is liberation’s breath. Joy is how we remember who we are. Joy is how we become whole again.
One Last Question to Carry With You:
How will you honor Juneteenth?
Not just today, but every day?
How is your community already celebrating freedom, joy, and resistance?
What acts of solidarity are they inviting you into?
(Not just what you want to offer—but what is asked of you?)Where can you show up not as a savior, but as a listener, a learner, a witness, a friend?
Let your honoring be more than remembering.
Let it be relationship.
Let it be practice.
Let it be presence.
Because Wisdom is not waiting in the spotlight.
She is dancing at the margins.
And she’s calling you to join her there.
A Final Reflection
Wisdom calls to us. Not only to correct, but to delight. Not only to teach, but to remind us of what our hearts already know.
She dances beside the Divine. She rejoices in creation. And she rejoices in you.
So take this week to listen: To the margins. To the last pew. To the Spirit. To the laughter that lives where no one expected joy.
Because the Holy One delights in your joy. And sometimes, joy is the truth that sets us free.
You do not need permission. Wisdom has been calling from the gates long before they opened.
Joy is not something you earn. It’s something you remember.
Ask yourself, not just what you believe, but what you long to laugh about again.
And listen. She’s calling. She always has been.