God of our nighttime conversations. Of our whispered prayers and twilight longings—Lord of our wondering, and Lord of our wandering.
We approach you with desperate questions, seeking satisfying answers.
How can anyone be born again?
What is the kingdom of heaven like?
Who, then, can be saved?
In our restless hours, and in our quiet darkness, our words and our worries rise up to meet you.
And there, in midair, they are met with your beautiful truth: our questions overwhelmed by eternal power. For God so loved the world that he gave his son.
Oh, lord, that despite injustice, violence and war, you still love the world.
Seeking answers, we are met with love, and seeking assurance, we are met with a call to believe.
So, God, in the wake of this beautiful collision between heaven and earth, we leave before you the hurting, the sick, the lonely, and the anxious. May they experience the wholeness that only your son may provide.
We remind you of the mistreated, maligned, and marginalized. And we ask your forgiveness for that which we’ve done and left undone, which has created chaos in the darkness.
We lament with you the presence of those who are hungry or unhoused in our world. Those who have threadbare clothes that are ill-equipped to protect them, and those without a reliable source of water.
And, Lord, we lift up to you our warring and violent ways. May our conflicts be subsumed in your glorious reign, oh, Prince of Peace.
We ask this in the name of Jesus, who taught us to love, to believe, and to pray
Our Father…
Kena Hawkins Newkirk 