You give...and we receive

A little slammed this morning finishing some grading before my students leave for break, so I am sharing a prayer by Walter Brueggemann. Brueggemann is an Old Testament scholar and a beautiful poet. Happy early Thanksgiving!

You give... and we receive

We are your people...like Mother Hannah
We come with our several eating disorders,

trembling lips,
needy hands,
fallen faces,
quiet in despair.

Because we do not have what we need by ourselves --
to make a future. And so we ask.

And you give! Generously, abundantly, inexplicably.
You give more than we ask or think or need,

enough for all our futures,
enough for joy,
enough for well-being beyond our trembling neediness.

You give... and we receive.

We receive and sometimes we covet and own and possess.
We receive and imagine it is our purchase.
We receive your goods like property.
We receive and want more.

You give... and we receive...

Sometimes we only thank in amazement,
Sometimes we yield in gratitude.
Sometimes we turn our joy into sacrifice and give back.
Sometimes we become more fully yours
in obedience and gladness.

Now is some such sometime. We pray in thanks. Amen.

(From Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann, Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 2003).