May 14th, 2023

O God of Love, God of grace, we come before you this morning in gratitude and in worship.

We are privileged to be your eternal family, to be children of such a parent, loving us so perfectly. On this beautiful Mother’s Day morning we come to you celebrating the gift of family. We see your glory and your wisdom in the diversity of that gift—a diversity that has always existed. We pray for small families like Elizabeth and Zechariah and their precious only son, John, and for large families like Jacob’s, with his twelve sons. We ask your blessing on multigenerational families like Timothy’s, whose mother and grandmother raised him in the faith.  Bless single person families like Mary and Martha and their brother Lazarus. We pray especially for broken families like King David’s, whether that brokenness is the result of death, destroyed relationship, or simply distance. We also pray for those like Ruth and Naomi who came through the pain of loss to establish new family ties.

We celebrate that you are a God who creates in beauty and wonder; we see that beauty and your creative handiwork in all of nature around us as Spring awakens the earth into life. We also celebrate your creation of humanity; for babies, children, adults, and elderly. We would echo the words of amazement and wonder of the Psalmist David as he wrote “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” (Psalm 139)

We also praise you because you are a God who heals, comforts, and restores. O God, bring comfort to those who are lonely, those who are living with grief, and those who today are facing what may seem like overwhelming  situations. May your presence bring hope and peace.

We also rejoice with those who have experienced your healing, your gracious wisdom, or the power of your grace in their lives. We give you praise and lift our hearts in worship.