1 John 4:16

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.

When I weep with you,

when I grieve with you,

when we welcome and share

each other’s tears,

(John 11:35)

when I hunger and thirst

for you,

when I walk the desert

for you,

when I step in and stand up

for you,

when I push back the devil

and his lies for you,

(Matthew 16:23)

when I walk with you

on your journey,

when I join you on your road

to Emmaus

and break bread with you,

(Luke 24:30)

when I say your name,

when I acknowledge you,

when I tell you I have not

abandoned you,

but am still here with you,

and I see you,

(John 20:16)

when I take your hand

and point to the cross,

and tell you just how much

God loves you,

and, oh, how He loves you,

(John 3:16)

when I tell you how He will

always welcome you home,

no matter how lost and how long

the journey has taken you,

(Luke 15:11-32)

when I do these things for you,

I am telling you this ….

God loves you.

I love you.

You are loved.

You abide in love.

You abide in God,

and God with you.

Amen.

Genesis 16:13

She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.”

1 Corinthians 13:12

For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.

Lord, You are the One

who sees me,

and in Your eyes,

I see

not a reflection of

my bodily self,

but an image of the self

You mean me to be.

For I am not a body,

I am a soul,

(or so I’ve been told.)

I am love distilled

and concentrated

by Your divine hand.

My reflection in the mirror

tells me little,

but in Your eyes,

I am fully known.

Amen.

Psalm 44:21

For he knows the secrets of my heart.

Lord, You alone know

the secrets of my heart.

You alone know the fears

I keep hidden,

and the joys I keep

locked away.

You alone know the dreams

that wake me in the night,

and the ones that hold

hope for the future.

Lord, You know me.

Lord, You see me.

I am seen by You.

I am heard by You.

My prayers never go

unanswered.

You never lose me

in a crowd.

With You, Lord, my voice

is clear.

The cries of the world never

drown out my own.

You, Lord, You alone know me.

You alone hear me.

You alone see me.

And no matter where I stand,

I am loved.

Amen.

Romans 8:38-39

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

To you, precious Child of God:

You are loved.

You are so loved.

You are loved in a way

that defies imagination.

The scope and breadth

of God’s love for you

begins in the very heart

He has given you,

and extends past the Milky Way

and all of creation.

He has breathed into you.

He has bestowed unto you.

He has gifted you.

He has poured into you His love.

And the light, the love,

that He pours into you

comes from a place

where living waters

run wild and untouched,

pure and clear, unpolluted

by the awfulness of the world.

You are filled with such a light

that even when you close

your eyes, there can be no darkness.

Don’t you see?

God’s love is a part of you.

It is woven and stitched into

every cell, every piece of your DNA.

We simply could not live,

could not breathe—our hearts

wouldn’t beat if God’s love

wasn’t a part of who we are.

Nothing can separate us from God’s love.

Not even death.

For in death, we rise and that spirit of love

is set free, our souls, the light of God’s love,

are released, unshackled and finally sent home.

Amen.

Micah 6:8

What does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Lord, come with me, please

on my morning walk and show

me whatever it is I need to see.

Tell me the name of the butterfly

that settles on the wildflowers

at dawn to dry its large, black wings.

Take my hand, Lord, and lead me down

the path to forgotten gardens, secreted

away among the pines and guarded, barred

by the owl who watches me from above.

Let me kneel in the damp earth, there

among the fallen leaves and dragonflies,

and make my confession to the cardinals

as they sing their morning hymns.

And then, Lord, when you think

I’m ready, take me from this church

to Your church—the people.

Take me to the place where people

capture Your creation in rooftop gardens

and try to find prayerful silence in a world

drowning in a cacophony of human suffering.

Take me to the place where everyone

is shouting, but no one has a voice,

a place where people scrawl their pain

and tag their fears in paint on signs and walls.

Take me to the place, Lord, where people

have forgotten You, where Justice has become

a myth and Mercy is the gift of fools.

Lord, I have been blind.

For too long, I have turned away

from the world and buried myself

in my own needs.

I have slept through wars and famine.

I have drawn the curtain over

the window to other people’s pain.

I have turned up the radio instead of

answering that desperate knock at the door.

Lord, open my eyes.

Lord, wake me from my sleep.

Lord, push me into the world.

Lord, humble me.

Make me an instrument of Your peace.

Amen.

Romans 8:26

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.

Lord, I stand on the shore

of humanity and stare out

at an ocean of pain,

an ocean that roars,

an ocean that rages and crashes

and beats itself against the rocks.

Lord, humanity suffers.

It cries out to you as

the tide of fear sweeps

in and takes with it

the very ground

beneath our feet.

We are as fragile as

yesterday’s sandcastle,

worn away by wind and water,

our hope, like sand, swept

back out to sea.

Lord the needs of this world

are so great, I simply cannot

find the words I need to pray.

I can only speak the very first

language I learned,

the very first language we all learned …

A cry.

Lord, You hear my cry.

You hear all our cries.

You sit so close to our spirits

that our hearts beat as one.

Your tears match our own.

Your great sighs echo our own.

No one knows us better, Lord.

Bring healing to us now.

Heal the parts of us which today

are so raw, so sensitive, that we flinch

even to a kind touch or a loving word.

Heal us, Lord.

Fill us with Your love.

Amen.

Ruth 1:16

Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.

To you, Beloved Child of God,

listen well and hear His promise to you ….

Where you go, wherever you go,

He will go.

He will be your shade

in the sun.

He will be your shelter

in the storm.

He will be that whisper

of hope in your ear.

He will be the hand

at your back, pushing

you forward.

And He will be that hand

on your arm, slowing you down.

He will be the light on the path,

showing you the way.

And if, while on that path,

with God, if you need to rest,

know this …

wherever you stay,

He will stay.

He will stay up with you

at night,

and sing lullabies to you,

until you drift to sleep.

He will have hot coffee
and buttery toast and all things

warm and sweet, waiting
for you in the morning.

He will sit with you

while you eat.

He will sit with you

while you rest.

He will count your tears

when grief overwhelms you.

He will count your tears

when laughter returns to you.

He will stay.

And your people will be His people.

And He will be—as He has always been—

Your God.

Amen.