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Creation Sunday Invocation

Today was Creation Sunday at our humble church in sunny, suburban Livonia. What is that? Simply, a day of worship focusing our gratitude for God's great gift of creation that enables us to breathe, drink, eat, and do many other things that corporeal beings do so well. It is a day of deliberation to think about sharing these gifts and stewarding them for generations to come. This is no reaction to the times--this is the Gospel--part of it, anyway, that far too many evangelicals have ignored.

Anyway, BK liked my invocational prayer I composed so I post it here (my blog which links to FaceBook) for your kindly critiques. I'm still not happy with it, but I'm just so frickin' picky when I write. Can you find where I stole from Ray Bradbury and Gerard Manley Hopkins?

Father, Maker of the Universe,
What can we offer that compares with the extravagant gifts of air, soil, and water You so graciously bestowed upon your creatures?
What picture can we paint that rivals your spectrum of light, a rainbow of feathers, a collage of insects, a field of flowers?
What songs can we sing that bring justice to the call of frogs on a spring evening, the waterfall of birdsong, the lullaby of crickets?
What poem or story can we compose to match the interplay of cells in bodies, the bright and distant glory of starfields, the journey of a drop of water?
We cannot, Lord, we cannot.
We even dared to pin you on a tree you created.
And yet, in spite of the paucity of our gifts, our rapacious greed, and heavy hands, you still chose to rescue us from our own destruction.
Your spirit imparts life, wisdom, and peace and covers us with bright wings.
Teach us to receive your gifts with respect and gratitude.
Move us to enter in to the divine life you offer.
Remind us that your good gifts are to be shared with all people, those living and those not yet born.
Open our eyes to see your world as you see it.
Make us more like Jesus.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
Amen.

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