Sunday Reflection: The birthday girl's prayer

Today is the birthday of Michelle, our Oskapewis/helper at The Community of Emmanuel/Inner City Pastoral Ministry. She led our Standing Stones service this morning, and the prayer and scripture she chose really moved me. Even more wonderful, she planned, collected volunteers, and held a barbeque for the folks who hang around the Bissell Centre -- a great way to celebrate a birthday! 

I can't begin to tell you about her inspiring words this morning, but I will share that she encouraged us all to name four truths that we rely on in our lives. I think that the ones I rely on most are encapsulated in the prayer and the psalm below. Beautiful words for a beautiful Sunday:

Great Spirit, God, Creator of all,
I welcome you into my heart, mind, body and soul.

There is always room for you here.

Grant me the wisdom to heed my inner voice

And the strength to stay grounded while I sing my sacred song.

Guide me down my chosen path.

Give me the courage to pursue my options.

I am thankful for the lessons and grateful for my struggles;

I have not forgotten what has brought me to where I am today.

Open my heart to the healting wholeness of nature;

We are all related, and through this I will find peace.

Great Spirit, God, Creator of all,

Cleanse my spirit and wash my heart.

There is always room for you here.  AMEN, hiy hiy.

From Psalm 139:

O God,

you search me and know me,

you know when I sit down

and when I rise up;

you discern my thoughts from far away.

You search out my path 

and my lying down

and are acquainted with all my ways.

Even before a word is on my tongue,

God, you know it completely.

You hem me in, 

behind and before,

and lay your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;

it is so high that I cannot attain it.

Where can I go from your spirit?

Or where can I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven,

you are there;

If I make my bed in hell,

you are there.

If I take the wings of the morning

and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,

even there your hand shall lead me,

and your right hand shall hold me fast.

If I say, 

"Surely the darkness shall cover me,

and the light around me become night,"

even the darkness is not dark to you;

the night is as bright as the day,

for darkness is as light to you.

For it was you who formed my inward parts;

you knit me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you, 

for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works;

that I know very well.

My frame was not hidden from you,

when I was being made in secret,

intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes beheld my unformed substance,

In your books were written all the days that were formed for me,

when none of them as yet existed.

How weighty to me are your thoughts,

O God!

I try to count them --

they are more than the sand;

I come to the end --

I am still with you.

My you feel God's presence in the week ahead, that God can be relied upon, no matter the results of the tomorrow's election!

And I pray Creator's blessings on our birthday girl, too.