Prayer
for a Hot Summer Morning
Good morning,
our Lord and our God.
We praise you
for this good morning, bright sunshine and warmth, flowers and fruit in the
garden, friendly faces in a place where we freely share worship in joy and
friendship.
It’s easy to
praise you and thank you for days like today.
But we now take a moment to remember to praise and thank you for rain
and dark days, for cold and sleet and clouds, for fog and damp and howling
winds and driving snow. Because your spirit lives in all your creation.
It’s easy to
praise you and thank you for people like us.
For those we love, and those we understand. But we pause now and remember to thank you
for annoying people, for people who drive badly right in front of us, for
people who don’t answer emails, for people who speak differently, for people
who are dirty or damaged or dangerous-looking.
Because your spirit lives in all your creation.
It’s easy to
praise you and thank you for leaders and politicians and institutions who sound
like us, who look like us, who say things we believe, and do things we want
done. We now pause and remember to try
to thank you for people who make no sense to us, who seem intent on evil,
people who deny what we feel to right.
Because your spirit lives in all your creation.
Teach us,
Lord, to Judge Not. Help us, Lord, to
move away from hate. Guide us, Lord, to
give and love and trust.
It’s easy for
us to take your one whole creation and divide it into boxes: good/bad, in/out, mine/yours, them/us. But that’s not what Jesus did when he walked
the Earth – he healed the incurable; he touched the filthy; he welcomed the
unloveable. Help us, Lord, to break down
the barriers of judging and sorting and setting up boundaries. Help us to see that “them” is “us.” Open us up like a plant in a gentle rain, to
leave judgment and division behind.
Because your spirit lives in all your creation.
We pray, Amen.
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