God of all seasons and senses,
grant us the sense of your timing
to submit gracefully
and rejoice quietly
in the turn of the seasons.
In this season of short days and long nights,
of grey and white and cold,
teach us the lessons of endings;
children growing, friends leaving,
loved ones dying, grieving over,
grudges over, blaming over, excuses over.
O God, grant us a sense of your timing.
In this season of short days and long nights,
of grey and white and cold,
teach us the lessons of beginnings;
that such waitings and endings
may be the starting place,
a planting of seeds which bring to birth
what is ready to be born—
something right and just and different,
a new song,
a deeper relationship, a fuller love—
in the fullness of your time.
O God, grant us the sense of your timing.
by Ted Loder, in Guerrillas of Grace
Used with permission from Christine Longhurst, editor of re-worship.blogspot on which the prayer is posted.
Photo: Neolithic standing stone, The Avenue, Avebury UK, by Ana Gobledale
