Saturday, July 15, 2023

Dear God,

My, oh my, what you do to create family for us.  Strangers can become friends but they can also become family.  Susan, Bill and Jan became family a long time ago.  This group of three drew me in; really, we each drew all the others in and we emerged as family.  But really it is a group of five.  You drew us in and remained with us!

Throughout our thirty-some-odd years together we have built faith, trust and hope.  With your help we have helped heal and guide one another.   We have stretched and challenged one another.  We exist to tell the tales of faith and how you are at work in the world and in our lives.   We have journeyed through loss, sorrow, bitterness, chaos and pain.  You have lifted us up, convicted us, invited us toward deep waters, cajoled us into new and better levels of understanding and whispered new truths to us.  Always we knew it was your spirit within us!

Today we gathered for several days of retreat.  Who knows what you will do next?

Thank you,

Holy God,

for the gift

of your spirit

and the presence

of one another

in holy space.

Thank you

for calling each

of us

into your 

loving presence.

Open us

to your movement,

we pray.

Yours, Andrea