A Concord Pastor Comments: Monday Morning Offering: 11/23

Good morning, good God!

This Thanksgiving week is a special time
to do what we should do always and everywhere:
- give you thanks and praise!

So this morning, Lord,
I offer you thanks for all the people I so often take for granted:
those who serve me in a hundred, quiet ways each day;
those who work with me, around me and near me;
those who so often make my life easier and my work lighter;
those whose work so often makes my work fruitful...

And I thank you for those who stand ready to protect me
in the town where I live and at posts far away;
I thank you for those who keep me safe
and those who safeguard my freedom and liberty...

I thank you for those whose work brings
food from farms,
delight from poetry,
love in songs
joy in the arts;
news from the world,
truth from prayer,
meals from kitchens
and knowledge from a million different sources...

I thank you for those who deliver heat, light
and clean water to my home;
those who keep my home, my church
and my town the beautiful places they are;
those who bring the mail to my door;
those who deliver all the comforts I take for granted...

I thank you for all the people
who fill my mornings, days and evenings
with their smiles, their friendship,
their company and conversation...

I offer you thanks for the beauty of the world around me:
the light of the sun, the moon and the stars;
the pull of ocean tides, the depths of lakes,
the flow of streams, the ripples of ponds;
the colors of nature, birds on the wing,
fields of fruit and flowers,
vegetables in garden rows
- and every square inch of Cape Cod...

I thank you for my faith, my trust, my hope in you;
I thank you for my ministry and the people I serve;
I thank you for the message of the gospel I preach
and the history of salvation
inherited from Israel, your chosen...

I thank you for the beauty of worship,
the depths of your Word,
the lyrics of the psalms,
the grace of the sacraments
and the life that is ours
through faith in you...

Make me truly and more deeply grateful, Lord,
for all you have given me
and for gifts I have yet to find, open and discover...

I thank you, Lord,
for all things bright and beautiful
and for all things bruised and broken:
let me find in everything
and in everyone around me
a trace of your presence,
the fingerprint of your grace,
the signature of your artistry...

Indeed, Lord, help me
always and everywhere
to offer you thanks and praise
for every good gift
that comes from your hand...

Amen.