by Katie Cook
God of Brother Sun and Sister Moon,
Sister Water and Brother Fire,
We thank you together for the gifts that are all about us:
For the majesty and variety of your creation
and for the fact that you seem to want us
to enjoy these gifts--
the colors in the sunset
in a field of flowers
in each other’s faces--
and that you seem
to want us to delight
in the size of the oceans
and the orchid seed
and to wonder
at the tiny light of Brother Firefly.
But we have grown too weary,
too hectic,
and too wise
To take delight in your gifts any more.
We thirst for beauty,
But we have forgotten how to see it.
This is our confession.
We ask you this morning to come
and dwell with us.
We ask you to restore our sense of wonder and awe,
to restore our joy in knowing you
and exulting in the simple surprises
you have placed all around us.
Heal our weariness,
our busyness,
our self-importance,
and our cynicism.
May we never fail to see
what you want us to see:
the world in need
or the random beauty.
