This beautiful morning

Gracious and Loving God--
Your beauty overwhelms me as I watch the sunrise through my tiny bathroom window, catching a glimpse of the pink and red hues escaping from the trees and bursting forth into the skies. I am stunned by the range of colors that trace their ways across the skies and I pause for a moment and wonder what it might look like to you. What is beauty to your eyes? Do you erupt with joy at the sunset? Do you weep as the sunrises and the light streams into my world, the light that you created? Do you notice the way the light catches the edges of the leaves on the trees and gives them its brilliance? Or do you miss the light because you are so focused upon the lives of your creations, your children, we who laugh and play and work and live in this world you have made?

As I sit and ponder your vastness, I am filled with one thought: grant me the strength that I might be faithful. Give me your love, so that I might serve my neighbor. Give me a mind that is singularly devoted to you. Give me hope and peace and light and joy so that whatever I do is directed towards you. My paltry acts can in no way give you the recognition that bursts from my heart, but your Spirit enables me to live and pray in such a way that I might have the courage to believe that my acts and my thoughts display my love and affection for you. You are my beginning and end, my love and my goal; grant that I may live these days in such a way that you are aware of my deep and steadfast devotion to you.

As for my failings? I weep over them. I shed tears that I have strayed from what you would have me do. I watch with sorrow as I replay those opportunities that I have missed to serve you. I mourn for time wasted without you. May my life be lived in service, in worship and in the presence of the Holy Spirit, constantly seeking out ways to glorify and proclaim the Good News of Eternal Hope that we have in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.