Prayer Offered for July 1, 2024

On a summer morning

I sat down

on a hillside

to think about God—

a worthy pastime.

Near me, I saw

a single cricket;

it was moving the grains of the hillside

this way and that way.

How great was its energy,

how humble its effort.

Let us hope

it will always be like this,

each of us going on

in our inexplicable ways

building the universe.

Loving and expansive God, may our work be a hymn of gratitude to the mystery of Your presence and our creativity as we go about our ordinary work in extraordinary ways. We ask this in Your name.—AMEN.

_{(“Song of the Builders” in Why I Wake Early by Mary Oliver)}