Beautiful Savior,
let us rest today in the symmetry of grace:
teach us to trust before we see the fruit,
to celebrate the ever-promised harvest,
but also, Lord, to notice what has come:
the heavy branch, the sweet windfall,
the lover’s voice, the reconciled friend.

And as we come, your wistful people,
fill our works and words with grace:
the beauty of a mother with her child,
the strength of a father’s laugh,
the bustle of a crowded table,
the wisdom of an athlete in his race,
the skill of a spider with her web,
the trust in the eyes of a loyal hound,
the ache in the hands that have done good work.

Clumsy and fretting, we stumble into you.
O God of our Thanksgiving, give us grace.

Amen.