Gracious and loving Creator, we ask Your blessing on all those who have labored for the common good of our state and country this season— all those within and far beyond the confines of this State Capitol. We pray for continued hope in our ability to mend the brokenness of our world. The poet, Denise Levertov reminds us:
… we have only begun to love the earth.
We have only begun to imagine the fullness of life.
How could we tire of hope? —so much is in bud.
How can desire fail? —we have only begun to imagine justice and mercy,
Only begun to envision how it might be to live as siblings with beast and flower, not as oppressors….
We have only begun to know the power that is in us
[When we] join our solitudes in the communion of struggle.
So much is unfolding that must complete its gesture,
So much is in bud.—AMEN.