Feb. 2, 2021
A daily prayer during this COVID-19 crisis
During these difficult days, Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC, is sharing a daily prayer based on the Revised Common Lectionary for the week. You are welcome to use these in worship or in your own devotions.
Today’s prayer
“Everyone is searching for you.” O, Holy God, I have searched for you in the pages of a book, thin pseudo-vellum sticking together, making it hard to find the next verse. I have searched for you in the words of a preacher on Sunday morning, with colorful light dancing across the bulletin I hold in my hands. I have searched for you in doorways and arches and stones stacked by hands long since fallen still. I have searched for you in the sound of an organ so loud that its sound resonated in my bones, voices lifted in song proclaiming “Hallelujah.” I have searched for you, God. We have searched for you, God. We have searched in all of the usual places. We have searched in all of the places we expect to find you. We have searched for you in all of the ways we expect to find you. We have searched for you in worship services livestreamed on Facebook and cast to our phones or our living room TV. We have searched for you in the crackle of the radio at drive-in services held in parking lots where we cannot roll down our windows or see the pastor from our spot in the back row. We have searched for you in zoom meetings of our small groups and in socially distanced fellowship events with faces obscured by masks and always the fear of not knowing exactly what six feet actually looks like. We have searched for you, God. And when we don’t find you, we decide that it’s because you’re simply not there. You are not in our google searches for “positivity rates” or “excess death calculations.” You are not in the temper tantrums of five-year-olds and fifty-five-year-olds who have decided that they have just had it with online school today. You are not in the moments where the PA feels overwhelmed by all of the death he has experienced in ten short months that feel like an eternity. We feel like you are not there. Like you have forgotten us. Like you do not know who we are. You, God. You who spread the heavens like a tent for us to live in. You, God. You who number the stars and call them by name. You, God. You who knew us before we knew ourselves. We are searching for you, God. But in our search, we have limited who you are and how you are. We have forgotten that it is your Spirit that dwells within us and cannot be separate from us. We do not have to search for you, God, because you are here. Right here. Always here. With us. Heal our broken hearts, God. Bind up our wounds. Expand our understanding of all the ways that you are — That you always are — So that we might stop searching for you and find our rest in the knowledge that you are the Eternal God of Presence. Amen. By Alyssa M. Densham, Director of Family Ministries for The Kingstowne Communion Mark 1:37b