Winter Prayer: A Cry for Relief when Hope Is Frozen

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A WINTER PSALM

As winter yearns for spring, 

As a frozen river anticipates thaw, O Lord, 

We wait on you,

Longing for release 

From this illness, loss, 

Isolation, and uncertainty.

Their cold claws tear at us.

Tears form icicles on our faces,

Dreams hang as sundogs in the winter sky.

Our hopes too are icebound.

Will a thaw come?

Healing? Ordinary life?

Will our families, children, jobs, churches survive?

O Lord, open our world like a flower in spring.

Crack the glacier into shards of light.

Help us remember that seasons 

Change 

Not as a man-made clock,

With jerky, impersonal, preciseness,

Rather with an assuring rhythm,

Gliding smooth and sweet,

Like a trombone changing notes

At the will of the conductor.

O Lord, assure us,

That just as sun, moon, and moods

Of your world obey 

Your rhythm,

This too will elapse.

Hear our prayers, O Lord!

Speak warm words

To us through

Your steady heartbeat.

Help us follow and hope in your rhythm,

Even as sunrise follows sunset,

And one season follows another.

We trust in you,

As we listen to the rhythm

Of your heartbeat

Of persistent love,

Careful provision, 

In the very nature

Of your created world.

Amen

 

P.S. This is the prayer I’m praying for you this next week. I will write and publish a new prayer each Thursday.