Helpless

On your first day of school

we drove by the building because

I ached to see that brick
still stood solidly on brick.

You, pigtails bobbing, walked

with other little ones,

looking for nature in the playground.

Seeing our car, you pointed and waved.

So much for furtive parenting.

What would have I done that day

if something had been wrong?

Would I have thrown myself across

your small frame, protecting, sheltering?

Of course.

Baby experts warn that what

wears down a parent is the

exhaustion, that bone weary

tiredness that never dissipates even

when your little one sleeps all night.

But I disagree. What really crushes

a parent’s heart is the helplessness;

it is all that you cannot fix

or mend

or kiss away.

What would I have done when

you walked away, so scared and alone?

Would I have borne your burden,

carried your pain?

Of course.

But I am helpless to do what I wish I could.

All I can do is watch and wait and love.

Mary must have keened with grief

watching her son die.

Any mother would.

Maybe it’s blasphemy, but

I imagine God felt that too.

Helpless with agony as his child

bore such pain.

It is comfort to believe

that God and I feel the same.

Helpless.

A Prayer of Gratitude -- July 22, 2018

This was an original prayer of gratitude written for this past Sunday's worship service, 

and for a longtime church member who is leaving to move to another state.

O Glorious, Incarnate God,

Out of love, you became not just like us,

but one of us;

taking on the frailty of our flesh,

so that we would see, touch,

feel and know your love

in the living and dying and rising of

your Son.

We thank you, Lord,

that your love and grace is still ours

to know through the people 

you place in our paths.

Thank you for friends who ask hard

questions, making us reflect more

deeply on our faith.

Thank you for those people in our lives

who seek to serve you with energy,

intelligence, imagination and love,

for they inspire us to the do the same.

Thank you for the gift and the 

empowering of the Holy Spirit,

whose presence we feel

when we sing and pray and

worship with one another. 

Thank you, God of love and hope,

that we are not called to walk this

curved road of faith alone,

but that you surround us with

companions along the way.

Thank you for those who make

your love real to us in every 

thought, word and deed.

Thank you, O God, for friends.

Amen.