GREETING (Adapted from Psalm 119:105 & 111)
God, your word is a lamp to our feet
and a light to our path.
Your decrees are our heritage forever;
they are the joy of our hearts.
HYMN 447 “Our Parent, by Whose Name”
PSALM 133
PRAYER
(Think back to the beginning of this day. Start there, and mentally walk through the day again, while you thank God for the day's blessings and God's continuous work of love. Confess and repent of those times when you forgot, ignored or rebelled against God. Continue to pray with your personal prayer list.)
SCRIPTURE LESSON
(Choose a passage of scripture to read. It can be a chapter, a paragraph, or a particular story. Daily lectionaries are available online or in print that assign a lesson each day from the gospels, epistles, Old Testament and psalms on a three-year cycle. Or you can create a plan to read a book of the Bible, or the whole Bible. Then follow the steps below.)
Read a passage of scripture. Read it out loud, very slowly and carefully as if for the first time. Continue reading until a word, phrase or sentence captures your attention. Stop there to repeat the word, phrase or sentence over and over, listening to it deeply in your heart.
Reflect on why the passage got your attention. Consider the area of your life to which this may apply. Is God saying something to you in this passage? Take time to listen carefully to whatever God may be saying to you.
Respond to God in prayer (or with journaling, music, art or whatever you choose) about what you have heard. Ask questions. Open yourself to God’s will for you.
Rest in God’s company. Be still and quiet. Move beyond thinking, practicing interior silence. Let yourself be open to God’s presence. Savor this moment with God.
PRAYER
Heavenly Father, I thank you for my earthly mother and father.
It is good to hold them up and honor their countless gifts given to me.
Whether intended or not, they planted the seed that grew into me.
I would not exist if they had not come together, merging life with life.
My father could have walked away, and I would not be here.
So many ways Mother could have said “No,” but I am her “Yes.”
In that small hinge of time, when life met life and became one,
I became heir to a countless multitude of joinings and generations.
Abraham was blessed with more children than stars in the sky.
I am blessed with more ancestors than sand on all the world’s beaches.
A fragile ribbon of DNA, passed down through ravages of time,
became my connection with all the family that has come before me.
Thank you, God, for all the marks of family that identify me,
and thank you, God, for Mother and Father and the moment I began.
Was it love that brought them together? It is so much better.
If so, my blessings are doubled to be conceived in love’s celebration.
Was it in the bonds of holy marriage? Then triple the blessings!
Did they want a family? Did they want me? The blessings multiply!
Did they dream of rocking me to sleep, singing a song to me,
walking me to school, bandaging my knees, playing ball with me?
Did they imagine me graduating, falling in love, marrying,
and bringing my children to be rocked to sleep in their aging arms?
Did they know the countless generations they passed on to me,
the roots, the myriad of connections to all those who had come before?
In those few moments of their joining, they gave me so much.
And the blessings continue to unfold each day, adding to their gift.
Thank you, God, for my Mother, for my Father and for my life.
Thank you for all the deep, deep connections and for every ancestor.
And thank you, Heavenly Father, for taking the seed they planted,
and helping me grow into the person I am becoming in your love. Amen.
SILENCE AND COMMITMENT
(Pause to reflect and listen. Work to push out of your mind any distracting or irrelevant thoughts. Concentrate your thoughts on the words of the hymns and choruses you have sung, the prayers you have spoken and the scriptures you have read. Be aware of what you are feeling. Listen for anything that God might be saying to you in this time you have spent together. As God responds to your prayer-time, seek guidance for how you can best respond to God’s will. Then commit to serving God’s will for you.)
HYMN 111 “How Can We Name a Love”
CLOSING PRAYER
As we step away from our work,
and look toward a night’s rest, O God,
we continue in your company.
This and your steadfast love,
satisfy our needs and inspire dreams
of our serving you tomorrow. Amen.
Copyright 2020. Robert D. Ingram, 32746 Jourden Rd., Albany, Ohio 45710 (dr.bobingram@gmail.com). Used by permission.
