A Concord Pastor Comments: Pause for Prayer: SUNDAY 6/23

Photo by Mark Penta

A Scallop Shell's Prayer

Most shell collectors pass me by, Lord,
   and if by some mistake they pick me up
      they toss me aside or back into the ocean...

I'm imperfect.
I'm uneven.
Asymmetrical is what I am, Lord.
I'm broken, chipped, not whole the way I used to be
   before some oceanic accident bit off a piece of me
   that's gone forever, swept far away
   by currents much too strong for me to challenge...

And so I've lived by Falmouth's shores for years.
I've been beached more times than I can count
   but then a wave will wash me back
   and back and forth I've gone until the waters
   and the sand and rocks have smoothed my jagged edge,
   and rounded my rough side...

You've given me a beauty not quite perfect,
   asymmetrical, uneven and yet whole
for I am the shell I am, Lord...

You've buffed and polished me with care
   until what's gone and what has healed
      are now as one and part of who I am
and though I miss what I have lost

I'm still whole, unto you and to myself...

Most collectors only see what I have lost

but you have taught me how to see what I still have,

who I still am, who I've become

since that oceanic accident bit off a piece of me

that's now forever gone...

I am the shell I am, Lord, and in your sight
no more, no less am I...

I see what's there, still there, and thank you

for the colors of my fan spread ribs, my strength;

and the fine strokes of your brush tracing
laced hints of your abiding presence...

Yes, most collectors pass me by

   and if by some mistake they pick me up
      they toss me aside or back into the ocean
but you have saved me, Lord, and kept me
   and for this I give you thanks:
   my imperfect, asymmetrical, uneven
      praise and thanks...

Amen.