So let's come into this space.
Maybe our arriving practice today is about gratitude.
Filling what is in this space with thanksgiving,
Prayers of thanksgiving,
Focusing on what it means to return our gratitude to God.
This one who unites us in our hearts,
Our minds,
And our lives.
So I invite you now to engage in this kind of space that you've set aside for this time.
To create a space that is accessible to you in a comfortable chair or maybe you're lying down.
I've had a few folks respond to me saying that they worship while walking.
That's okay,
Just try not to close your eyes when I invite you to.
But whatever is accessible to you,
Whatever is comfortable for you,
Whatever you might be doing,
Let's find a way to be in this moment and give thanks.
So I invite you now to close your eyes or rest your gaze away from the screen and come into this space for a brief arriving meditation based in gratitude.
Since we have been on this journey together in this way of worship,
It has become a practice for me that every time I close my eyes,
It's almost like I can catch my breath.
That I'm training my mind and my body in such a way that every time I close my eyes,
I am able to maybe just for a brief moment,
Find my breath.
I am so grateful for that practice.
So grateful for the miracle of my mind and body to find this connection after so many distractions for so long.
It's gratitude in the small things first.
Maybe to help us practice how to be grateful for the larger things in our lives.
So maybe it's gratitude for the chair we're sitting in,
The space in our homes that we have to create a sanctuary so that we can seek refuge in God's love and grace.
Maybe it's the air we breathe.
Maybe it's the clothes that we wear,
The simple things in life.
We can practice in gratitude.
I invite you now to take a few breaths,
Breathing in whatever it may be that you want to be grateful for on the inhale and on the exhale.
Remember the words,
Thanks.
Breathing from these seemingly small things,
Maybe something a little larger.
Gratitude for the neighborhood we live in or the weather,
Be it sunny or raining,
Cold or hot.
For the body that you have to navigate the world around.
Giving thanks for the body,
For the community,
For your neighborhood,
For the climate,
Whatever it may be.
Take a few moments now on the inhale,
Think about those things that you're grateful for.
Those things that are a little larger,
A little more encompassing.
On the exhale,
Utter the word,
Thanks.
Now we turn our attention to the global,
The universal,
For the miracle of life.
Maybe we're grateful for the seven billion plus people who are on this earth,
Sharing this common moment together right here and right now.
But these persons in this one moment are sharing life.
I'm so grateful for my neighbors near and far,
Far away who are breathing with me and imagining how to live this life.
Maybe they have some of the same struggles,
The same joys,
The same concerns,
The same excitements.
Whatever it may be,
Let us bring gratitude to these.
For our planet,
The miracle of life that continues to emerge even in this time as the seasons are changing,
As the ebbs and flows of our lives keep shifting,
Life continues to unfold.
What may be dying in this hemisphere is thriving in another.
For the mundane,
For the extraordinary,
For the ordinary and the exuberant,
All of it in between.
For the universe we live in,
For our spin around the sun,
For the many ways that we are connected as star dust together with particles of the universe,
We give thanks.
We give thanks for God and Christ and for our way of being in this world.
On the inhale,
Take those things that are global and universal and then as you exhale,
Say the word thanks.
Picture in your mind something that is bigger,
Bigger than your worldview and utter the word thanks on the exhale.
And as we have thanksgiving on our lips and in our mind,
Let us return thanks to God.
Let us pray.
God of elegant grace,
Help us to see as you see with love and grace instead of fear and judgment.
Help us to notice the wonderfulness in imperfections,
The joy in irregularity,
The elegance in uniqueness.
Guide us to let go of assumptions of what perfection looks like,
What life should be like.
Make space for us to see,
Make space for us to just be,
Just as you made us to be and help us to give thanks.
And in this first step of giving thanks,
Oh God,
We turn now to you to unite our hearts,
Our minds and our voices in the prayer Jesus taught his disciples to pray.
Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.
