Daily Worship

The cycle of life

Norah Summers September 06, 2016 0 0

Psalm 30: 1-5

A Prayer of Thanksgiving

30 I praise you, Lord, because you have saved me
    and kept my enemies from gloating over me.
2 I cried to you for help, O Lord my God,
    and you healed me;
3  you kept me from the grave.
I was on my way to the depths below,
    but you restored my life.

4 Sing praise to the Lord,
    all his faithful people!
Remember what the Holy One has done,
    and give him thanks!
5 His anger lasts only a moment,
    his goodness for a lifetime.
Tears may flow in the night,
    but joy comes in the morning.

Mourning is part of our lives,

and so is joy,

but we can’t always make the connection.

 

It helps me to think of the cycle of life – 

 

the seasons come around, 

the days shorten as now, 

but in a few months they will lengthen again.

 

Seedtime and harvest come around –

faster than many of us would like to think.

 

Birth and death –

death and birth –

 

unless the seed falls and dies,

there is no new growth.

 

Loving God,

when we are in the depths of misery,

buried in hopeless night,

lift us up to the light of your morning.

 

Give us grace, Lord,

to accept the surprising ways 

in which you bless the mourners.