Resurrection Stretch - A Prayer, by the Rev. Dr. David Long-Higgins

Blossoming God,

  Open the petals

  Of my often closed life

  With Your irresistible light

  Of goodness and grace

  Revealing resurrection

  Surprises at every turn.

Stretch every petal of me

  Too often closed to You

  And Your promises

  Of possibilities unknown

  Except by consent

  To Your motion of Love.

By this of You

  Reveal the beauty

  You plant by seed

  Into every living being

  Impossible to know

  In its buried beginning

  Yet made visible

  In a time envisioned

  By Your loving desire.

Yes, stretch me open

  Into awe and wonder

  At Your blossoming beauty

  In every living being

  And even in me.

Let this of Your Christ-love

  Pull wide the petals

  Of Your whole creation

  In response to Your light

  Of soaking, searching love

  Touching earth with eternity.

And may Your hidden beauty

  Rise again and again today

  In the midst of ordinary turns

  Made extraordinary

  In the noticing,

  The savoring,

  And the thanksgiving

  Called forth

  By these amazing moments

  You so readily reveal.

And let it cause

  Just enough

  Resurrection revelry

  To stop the madness

  And turn the world

  And me toward You.

                            Amen.

Music: Waking Us by Quiet Lake