Prayer
I lift up my eyes to the dunes, to the lake, to the skies, to mountains far away. I lift up my heart to the source of life and love and all that is.

I look in wonder at creation and remember how fragile all this is: our tiny planet in a vast universe, our precarious perch on a thin crackly crust of cool rock, the cocktail of water vapor, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and oxygen, all judiciously blended to envelop and sustain us, the so-far faithful flow of energy from our middle sized star, the precious and risky character of human love and communication and cooperation, the ever-present peril of slipping into evil and violence and selfishness.

I am thankful for life in all its beauty. For the joys of love and work and play and rest. For all the other creatures I share my world with. For breakthroughs and new things to learn about and challenges to surmount. For narrow escapes and cool serendipities and moments of awakening. For art to stimulate the soul and engaging conversations and good books. I am grateful for these and so much more.

My restless human heart ever longs for more of life. Not only for the next meal or accomplishment or bit of sleep, though that too, but also for a deeper meaning, a more significant adventure or a deeper fellowship, a role in the bigger story that somehow matters. And I yearn for consummation of that story itself. O that life on this earth could flourish as Jesus proclaimed it might with peace and justice and healing and plenty and freedom for every one. That chains could be broken, wars cease, and darkness be pushed back by light and hatred by love.

I lift my heart in wonder and trembling yet confident hope and my best thankfulness through the spirit that lived in Jesus, and lives in all people of good will everywhere. Amen.