This Labor Day weekend, Lord,
I’m grateful for the world you created
and that I, too, am the work of your hands:
you formed my inmost being,
you knit me in my mother’s womb... Psalm 139
I’m grateful for the world you created
and that I, too, am the work of your hands:
you formed my inmost being,
you knit me in my mother’s womb... Psalm 139
How can it be
that you took the time,
before time was,
to imagine my being,
to consider for even a moment
that I should exist:
to conceive of me
so long before I was conceived?
before time was,
to imagine my being,
to consider for even a moment
that I should exist:
to conceive of me
so long before I was conceived?
And then from my parents’ love
you fashioned and made me
in their image, yes,
but first in yours,
and gave me a soul
and gave me a soul
you’d given no other
and breathed in me the Spirit’s gift,
and breathed in me the Spirit’s gift,
the breath of your own life…
How great are your works, O Lord, my God,
and how grateful am I
that this life of mine
is truly the work of your hands…
is truly the work of your hands…
And who am I, Lord,
that you should ever be mindful of me
that you should ever care for me,
that you should ever care for me,
that you should eternally love me?
Yet you’ve crowned me
with glory and honor:
your love, my crown,
your mercy, my glory,
your grace, my unmerited honor…
your love, my crown,
your mercy, my glory,
your grace, my unmerited honor…
Without you, Lord,
I am nothing;
without you,
I am not…
without you,
I am not…
You created me, Lord,
and so it is now that I,
the work of your hands,
offer to you
the work of my hands,
knowing that all that I have to give,
offer to you
the work of my hands,
knowing that all that I have to give,
from the first was your gift to me…
Every good thought of mine, O God,
and every imagined word,
every possible plan I dream,
and every gift I offer
is first the work
of your Spirit within me
and yet you’re pleased when I lift as gift
what was your gift to me
what was your gift to me
to begin with…
On this Labor Day weekend
I offer you, Lord,
all the work I’ve ever done,
and all that’s yet mine to do
and I pray you accept it,
knowing I’m humbled
that I have a share in the work you do
and you have a share in mine…
and you have a share in mine…
And I pray for those who have no work
and for those whose work
is too much to bear:
lift up the unemployed, O Lord
and lighten the load of the weary…
lift up the unemployed, O Lord
and lighten the load of the weary…
I praise you, O God
for the work you’ve begun
in me, in my neighbor and all the world:
bring all of your work to completion, O Lord,
Creator of all that is good…
Amen.
