After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. – Revelation 7:9
Holy One, as we come before you today,
with people from all over the world,
we confess that is it so very hard
to lift our eyes up from the things that are right before us.
It is difficult to open our hearts
- to the pain of the neighbor down the street who completed suicide
- to the joy of our co-worker who welcomed their firstborn child
- to the agony of the nearby community where four children died when a vehicle crashed into an after-school care facility
It’s even harder to conceive
- what it is like as Israeli strikes on Gaza continue, recently killing at least 48 displaced Palestinians at shelters according to hospitals
- the uncertainty of aid shipments as drone strikes rock the city of Port Sudan in Sudan and damage access to foreign aid
- the joy of being reunited with a beloved family pet, as Valerie the dachshund and her family are back together after she spent 540 days alone on Kangaroo Island in South Australia
- grief after at least nine people were killed in Vancouver, Canada, when a car collided with a crowd celebrating Filipino heritage
- escalating unrest and attacks between India and Pakistan as the conflict between the two nations grows
- the glimmer of hope to a de-escalation in the trade war between the United States and China as talks between the two countries are scheduled to take place this week
God and Creator of us all, remind us that we are intertwined with one another in a web of life,
that my actions impact those around me,
and even those I may never meet.
Remind us all that what we say and do matters,
that our words and actions have power-
power to heal,
power to destroy.
Show us how to live our lives
so that your community,
a community of love, of peace, of grace, of mercy
becomes a little more a reality
here, everywhere
now, always
today, every day.
May it be so.
Amen.
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