Incarnational God,
How strange is it,
that you came to us,
as one of us?
Of all the ways,
with all the power and all the possibilities,
you chose flesh and bone,
breath and sweat.
You chose to experience life with us,
that we might come to choose life with you.
Of all the ways you could have come close to us,
you chose a body,
with imperfections and hurts and hungers.
We know those hurts. We know those hungers.
We know the pains and struggles you must have felt.
Might you help us to see, God,
how the Holy dwells in our own skin and bones, too?
Might you help us to see,
if these bodies were good enough for you,
they might be good enough for us too,
and help us to honor the holy in our own bodies, here.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
How strange is it, Holy God,
that you came to us, as one of us?
Living and eating. Resting and being.
Casting out the hurting things.
Living in the midst of divided things.
How many people encountered you, Lord,
and didn’t see it?
How many people stumbled into you,
without reaching out to touch?
How many do we walk by,
without noticing the You?
How many do we turn away from,
so that we can’t see?
Might you awaken us to one another,
those who are easy to see,
and those who are not,
that our names might not be written amongst those
who missed God in their midst.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
How strange is it, Holy God,
that you come to us, as all of us?
How strange that you didn’t end your story with a cross,
that you didn’t end your story with an empty tomb.
That you continue to write,
and dance, and sing, and play,
that you continue to eat, and laugh, and weep,
that you continue to show up
every time your people gather?
How strange it is, that you keep doing this?
That you don’t withhold your goodness for
the best and the brave.
That you don’t withhold your glory
from the everyday and the mundane.
That you keep revealing yourself,
even when the faith feels like work,
even when the love becomes labor-some,
even when the hope begins to quake.
Always and always you come to us, as all of us.
May you keep surprising us and surrounding us,
never staying far from your gathered people.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
God incarnate,
strange you are, and yet you are,
with love so bold, you couldn’t stay away.
Might you remind us in these days,
that you are near, and you always have been,
as we stumble together towards your promised day.
For that day we wait, and work, and pray,
always as you taught us,
our voices together as your One body in this world,
we pray … Our Father..