NIGHT PRAYER: Tuesday 2/23

Across the room where I'm writing, Lord,

is a beautiful orchid...

 

    Photo by CP

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This blossom knows nothing of the pandemic

or waiting for the vaccine 

or that today is Tuesday

of the first week of Lent...

 

This orchid exists for but one purpose, Lord:

to share its beauty 

with all whose gaze might fall upon it...

Some claim an orchid tea might be good for what ails you

but doesn't its potent healing better fill the eye than a cup?

 

An orchid's bloom intact, not dried, crushed and steeped, 

has power to heal a lonely heart or remedy a soul's distress

just by being what you made it to be, Lord:

nothing more and nothing less than that...

Wheat, of course, must first be dried and crushed

before it yields the flour for a loaf of bread

and bread itself must first be broken

so it might feed and fill and nourish...

 

You yourself, Lord, like bread,

you were broken for us that our sins 

might be steeped and cured

in the healing flow of your holy blood...

 

And to follow you, we must be broken, too,

as a loaf is torn in pieces

that the many might be one...

 

But the orchid, blessed blossom, 

lives only for its healing saving beauty 

'til it dies and falls to the earth

that it might rise again, in glory,

to heal and save again...

 

Protect us, Lord, while we're awake

and watch over us as we sleep

that awake, we might keep watch with you

and asleep, rest in your peace...

 

Amen.

 

(A little instrumental music this evening

but we'll let the orchid itself sing its beauty...) 

 

 

Tweet   

  
Subscribe to A Concord Pastor Comments