A Concord Pastor Comments: Monday Morning Offering: 7/13

(I'm away for a few days and posting a prayer I wrote in 2010.)

Good morning, good God!

Since early June, Lord,
I've been watching the vine you're growing
just outside my second floor window,
right over the roof of my garage...

It's a plain vine, in several strands:
it traces across my window screen,
edging from one side to the other
and on sunny afternoons
casts a leafy pattern on my window sill...

So tiny the tendrils, Lord, threading the mesh,
tacking the vine to the screen:
holding and holding on...

I remember times, Lord, when tendrils of trust
reached, stretched and threaded my life
to the hope that you were there
when I could not see you,
to the conviction that you would catch me
when I was in free fall,
to the promise that you would lead me,
when I did not know the way...

Tendrils of trust, Lord:
sometimes a word, often a prayer,
the help of a friend, the grace of Communion,
the breath of your Spirit, the words of a song,
the rhyme of a poem, the light of your Word...

Tiny tendrils reaching, stretching, threading,
meshing my life to yours,
helping me hold on,
helping me trust that you're holding me...

This morning I offer you, Lord,
the gift of the vine you're growing
outside my second floor window,
just over the roof of my garage...

Let the pattern of its leafy beauty dance
across my window sill
and across my day...

Let every tendril of my faith and hope
meet and mesh with the reach of your arms
holding me when I need to hold on,
embracing me when I need to be held...

Help me meet the reach of those
whose paths cross mine today:
help me stretch and thread my life with theirs
that in you we might all be one...

Amen.