A Prayer for Thanksgiving Day, 2015

Dear God, our hearts are full on this Thanksgiving Day. Thank you for all the gifts you have given us:

For this fine day, for sunshine and rain,
For a natural world that so efficiently sustains and nurtures life,
And for life – the cascading, colorful, amazing expression of that energy you have breathed into the whole creation,
For growing things: for forests of trees and flat, fertile plains teaming  with life,
For birds and fish, dogs and cats, wolves and gorillas,
For tiny cells and gorgeous Blue Whales
For crisp apples and sweet pears,
For cows and horses and chickens, and for turkeys, we thank you, gracious God.
Thank you God for this beautiful world and all its peoples. In the midst of our Thanksgiving we ask you to bless this world, our world, your world. It is broken and hurting and fearful today, dear God. So we pray particularly for those who are suffering: for refugees everywhere,
For hungry children and their desperate parents, for frightened people in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Israel, Palestine, and in France. We pray for and ask you to bless our Muslim neighbors who, once again, must live with the suspicion and mistrust of their neighbors. Remind us, O God, that they share our dreams and aspirations, that they love their children as we do, that they are the neighbors you told us to love, that in your love for them and for all of us, they are our sisters and brothers.

Thank you God for our nation: for Pilgrims and brave early settlers, for the remarkable people who were here when they arrived, for wise founding fathers and mothers, and for visionary, strong political leaders, for all the men and women who have served and fought for our independence, our unity, our freedom, and especially for those who died.
We thank you and hold in our hearts all those young women and men who serve our nation in harm’s way on this Thanksgiving Day.

Thank you for our government, for its values of human dignity and liberty, and for its long, difficult and ongoing struggle to make good on the promise of justice for all.

Thank you for our families that nurture us and remind us every day of who we are, for the lives of all those dear ones we have loved and lost, and for dear friends that enrich our lives.

Most of all, above all, good and gracious God, we thank you for your love and for your promise to be with us all our days.

We pray all this in your name, and in the name of everything that is holy and good. Amen