My friend Ana Lisa De Jong gave me permission to post this beautiful prayer which I thought you would appreciate.

GOD OF SMALL THINGS

My God is the God of small things.

Seeds.

Newborn babies.

Nutshells that contain multiple truths

in humble small containers.

My God is the God of small beginnings.

Like breathing

or opening eyelids.

If we but move today

we can accomplish what he asks.

God, my God of swaddled babes

that fumble for the breast,

he teaches us the worth of

lying still in trust.

My God is the God of humble things.

Caves.

Beds of straw.

Lives that don’t amount to much

if judged upon their origins.

My God is the God of silent things.

Wombs.

Passages in the dark.

Quiet incubators, within which cells divide

and muscles stretch towards the light.

God, my God of birth pangs

and pain that finds release,

he teaches us that the dark

often precedes new life.

My God is the god of honed things.

Parred down.

Simplified.

A carpenter sanding back the wood

to reveal the grain beneath.

My God is the God of beloved things.

Neglected.

Abandoned.

Rescued for nothing they have done,

but because of a plan of redemption.

God, my God of Christmas coming,

somehow the wonder of Advent

is knowing we need do nothing

but let new life be birthed in us.

Ana Lisa de Jong

Living Tree Poetry

December 2017