Pause for Prayer: LABOR DAY 9/4

Image: George Mendoza

Good morning, good God!

This Labor Day, Lord,

I'm grateful for the world you created

and that I, too, am the work of your hands:

    you formed my inmost being, 

        you knit me in my mother's womb...*

 

How can it be that you took the time,

before time was,

to imagine my being, to consider,

even for a moment,

that I would exist:

    to conceive of me

    - before I was conceived?

 

And then from the love of two
you fashioned me  

in your own image - and theirs;
you gave me a soul you'd given no other
and breathed in me your spirit, 

the breath of your own life...

 

How great are your works, O Lord,

and how grateful am I

that this life of mine

is truly the work of your hands...

 

Who am I that you should be mindful of me,

watch over me, love and care for me?

Yet you've crowned me with glory and honor:

    your love, my crown,

    your mercy, my glory,

    your grace, my honor...

 

Without you, Lord, I'm nothing:

    without you, I am not...

 

You created me, Lord, my God,

and now I, the work of your hands,

offer you the work of my hands,

knowing that all that I have

was first your gift to me...

 

Every good thought of mine,

every imagined word, 

every work I dream,

every gift I offer

is the work of your Spirit within me -

and yet you're pleased

when I lift up as gift

what was always yours to begin with...

 

On this Labor Day, Lord, I offer my work

and pray you'll accept it and know

that I'm humbled that my hands share in your work

and your hands share in mine...

 

And I pray for those who have no work
and for those whose work's too much to bear:
lift up the unemployed, O Lord,
and lighten the load of the weary...

Make me mindful, Lord, of the all ways 

you move in my life and save me

through the work of all whose paths cross mine,

who selflessly serve in your name...

 

Good God of Monday mornings

and of every labored day,

bless the work of your people

and bring to fulfillment...

 

Amen.

 

*Psalm 139

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