Sabbath Prayer part 3

Days pass and the years vanish and we walk sightless among miracles.  Fill our eyes with seeing and our minds with knowing.  Let there be moments when your Presence, like lightning illumines the darkness in which we walk.  Help us see, wherever we gaze that the bush burns, unconsumed.  And we, clay touched by God will reach out for holiness and exclaim in wonder, How filled with awe is this place. Prayer from Jewish Sabbath Prayer Book 

I have been praying this prayer all week...and finding it helpful.  So often, we rush through a prayer like Kleenex, thinking a prayer should be one and one.  But maybe a meaningful, prayer that has depth can be returned to time and time again.  Prayers like the one above is like a stream, each time I step into it, let its words rummage and roam around my life, something is different.  Prayers like the one above is like a stained glass window that is always changing with the light that streams through it.

So, I love the line about the bush burning unconsumed.

Or as one of my favorite poet puts it:

“Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God,
But only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round and pluck blackberries.” (Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

There are moments when I pluck a lot of blackberries without realizing I am on holy ground.

So, my invitation is to savor the simple taste of each bite today.
Savor the conversations, even...or especially...the difficult ones.
Savor the ordinary.
Savor the mundane.

Have you ever noticed how joyful it is to pick out a flesh apple from the store?

To be sure, life is difficult.  There is too much suffering.  There is too much divisiveness and debate.  There are too many people pushed to the fringes.

But every now and then, some thing simply sacred helps preach another word to those truths above.  A kind word to a Muslim woman at the story.
A hug to someone who is hurting and wondering if anyone cares.

It isn't that these minuscule moments suddenly become monumental.  But they take on a significance it is easy to miss...like a delicious blackberry from a burning bush.

May you notice the bushes unconsumed with a trace of God's grace in your life this day.

Blessings ~~