If I were to make an offering at this moment, it would be to offer that which rightfully belongs to God irrevocably: The past and the future. We have a tendency to want to control both of those, when we have really no deed on either one of them. The past is for God’s judgement and forgiveness. The future is for His care alone.
Dear Alexandria and Mary Ellen,
Mary Ellen, you have been assigned by the Choir Director at our church to say an offertory prayer at an upcoming service. This prayer is to be an original work, suitably brief, perhaps four or five lines long. Your mother, in a moment of questionable wisdom, has asked me to pen your words.
Now, either one of you girls could write a wonderful prayer. Mary Ellen, you really enjoy praying over our dinner and you make a great show of praying for whatever you love most in that moment. It could be the birds, or the dogs, or the gerbils, or the food (cheeseburgers especially), or the fact that I am home. You have a thankful heart, and for an offertory prayer, I cannot think of a better place from which to begin than from a genuine feeling of gratitude.
So here I sit in my tenth floor hotel room in anything but a grateful mood, listening to a strong wind howl outside the window. I am trying to write this prayer, but I have fallen into writing to you instead. Over the miles, I am trying to tap into Mary Ellen’s optimistic energy; Alexandria, I love you dearly, but I fear you have inherited your father’s melancholic tendencies!
The thought occurs to me: The sun is set. The day is done and nothing about it can be changed. Tomorrow is just an idea, an abstraction, something that is likely to occur but it is not definite. The only reality is this moment, the one that I have been granted right now. Right now, at least in spirit, I am with you and feeling your love─ the miles between us are suddenly as irrelevant as the idea of tomorrow. What an amazing gift! A much loved passage from Matthew just popped into my head:
“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” ─Matthew 6:34
So, if I were to make an offering at this moment, it would be to offer that which rightfully belongs to God irrevocably: The past and the future. We have a tendency to want to control both of those, when we have really no deed on either one of them. The past is for God’s judgement and forgiveness. The future is for His care alone.
None of this, of course, helps a ten-year-old pray the offertory at church. The above is probably a bit too theologically rich for this setting. Maybe something like this:
Lord God who gives us so many gifts
Thank you for the chance to give something back to you
Let these gifts show our love for you and for one another
That we might be shining beacons of your grace
And all of God’s people said, “Amen.”
A Letter to My Daughters... 