Sacredise - Prayer: Responding To Life

Responding To Life

by John van de Laar

There is nothing that can destroy or contain your life, O God,
    life is always slipping through the cracks of the world
        and of our lives,
    always sending out its shoots and scattering its seeds,
        giving birth to new promises and possibilities.

We need eyes and ears, hearts and minds
    that are attuned to the signs and songs of life
    that respond automatically to life’s rhythms and reasons.

Teach us, O God, to respond to the life
    that flows in tears of joy
    and that stumbles through tears of grief.

Teach, O God, to respond to the life
    that resists even the harshest violence
        and the most cataclysmic disaster,
    and that slowly rises from ashes of destruction and war.

Teach us, O God, to respond to the life
    that dances in the untamed places of the planet,
    and that walks gently in cities and technology.

Teach us, O God, to respond to the life
    that sings in the cry of the infant,
    and that whispers in the sigh of the dying.

Life - your life - is always slipping through the cracks of the world
    and of our lives, O God,
We need only to recognise it and respond,
    and in this moment,
        insofar as we are able,
    we do.

Amen.

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