Photo Courtesy of Christy Thomas
Praying Hands
I was invited to offer a prayer at a Denton-based Interfaith Day of Prayer celebration on Thursday, May 7. The organizers asked that the prayer be scripted ahead of time. I was in the midst of helping to care for the family of one of my sons with the birth of their fourth child so didn’t have time to write until I sat in the airport heading home.
This prayer then began to flow:
As I wrote these words to you, O Most Holy God, I sat in a busy, stuffy airport terminal, watching people hurriedly race to stand in the next line, despairingly poke through over-priced food and fuel their energy furnaces with caffeine and sugar. Many walk with their eyes on their phones or with earplugs pounding their brains by the latest and greatest versions of the music of the spheres. Indecipherable announcements periodically punch through the noise of massive air vents, rolling bags, innumerable conversations and pounding feet.
In the days before, as I wandered the streets of New York, packed with seething humanity all looking for something, I asked You then as I ask you now: “What is the good news for humankind today?” “What is the good news for us frazzled, stretched, busy, desperate, hurting, searching humans?”
In time, I heard the whisper once again.
“Tell them,” You said, “tell them that you were blind and now you see, that you were in chains and now are free.”
“Tell them” You said, “tell them that you have found bread and will tell them where, that you have found water and will share the well.”
“Tell them” You said, “tell them that grace is free and hope prevails, that love reigns and hope sustains.”
So, on this day of prayer, I say to You, “Thank you.”
Thank you for the voices in the silence that shout with joy that we may indeed be one in connection with You, O Holy One, the Creator and Lover of the cosmos, who calls all to Yourself.
We offer ourselves in gratefulness to you. And we say to you, “Continue to heal our blindness to the injustices around us. Continue to set us free from the sins that bind us. Continue to give us voice to the grace that holds us.”
So be it. Amen.
The Rev. Christy Thomas of Denton, Texas, is a writer and retired clergy member of the North Texas Annual Conference. She blogs at The Thoughtful Pastor.