A Concord Pastor Comments: Monday Morning Offering: 9/14

Morning Coffee by George Mendoza

Good morning, good God!

Seems in my part of the world, Lord,

you’re easing us into autumn

with warm sunny days wrapped

in cool mornings and evenings...

The balance, just now, is near perfect

but soon a chill will spill into afternoon hours

and slowly pick the leaves from trees

until they’re bared of beauty,

summer’s glory fading fast...

Something in me longs to stall the seasons changing,

to stay the summer and hold back the dying

that comes 'round this time each year

as sunlight plays its game of hide-and-seek...

This is fall's time, Lord:

time for a brisk nip in the air quickening my step and pace,

for branches scratching prayers across a harvest moon,

and for such such rare, spare beauty -

I offer you my praise and thanks…

Inside and out, Lord,

my body and soul stand between the seasons:

no change in nature’s phases fails

to change in turn the seasons of my heart…

The rhythms of creation,

of suns and planets, moons and tides

all echo in my heart and my soul knows

how all that lives will die

and all that dies will rise again

when comes the spring that has no end…

Walk me from summer into fall, Lord,
without losing an hour's sunlight
or a day's warmth
or a moment's memory of sand and shore...

Walk me from summer into fall, Lord:
show yourself in all your leafy autumn beauty,
dropping down to lay a colored carpet,
a path beneath my steps...

Help me let go what I hold too tightly,
what cannot last the whole year through,
and let my empty arms embrace what comes
with trust that even in the falling, in the dying,
you are with me, faithfully present
and abiding in all the seasons of my life...

Be my bridge, Lord, from summertime to fall
and ready me for all that lies ahead:
the winter and the cold, the springtime and its promise
and summer once again...

Receive my prayer today, Lord,
my Monday morning offering,
and keep me through the week
and through the season's change ahead....

Amen.