02/01/2010 - Daily Prayer

Life is a wonderful and mysterious gift. Every year, we witness the cycle of life by watching the trees change in each season. The writer Harry Emerson Fosdick realized that we humans have much to learn from the natural world, he wrote:
We ask the leaf, “Are you complete in yourself?” And the the leaf answers, “No, my life is in the branches.” We ask the branch, and the branch answers, “No, my life is in the root.” We ask the root, and it answers, “No, my life is in the trunk and the branches, and the leaves. Keep the branches stripped of leaves, and I shall die.” So it is with the great tree of being. Nothing is completely and merely individual.”
When we look outside at the cold landscape of winter, and see the trees standing bare of their glory, we are reminded that we are as vulnerable as the trees. Our lives are not separate and complete in and of themselves; each of us is dependent on many layers to nourish and protect us. If we were asked “Are you complete in yourself?” We would have to answer: “No, my life is in my family, my friends, my community, my faith and beliefs - if you strip me of these, then surely I shall die.”
Oh, Master of the Universe, we thank You for the precious gift of friends and family who fill our lives with blessings and protect us from the storms of life. We ask of You to shelter and sustain them, for without their support, we could not do the task that is asked of us. Blessed is the Creator, the giver of life. Amen.