The world is filled with your glory,
and you’ve given us eyes to see it,
ears to hear it, a nose to smell it,
hands and mouth to touch and taste.
Thank you for the taste of fresh strawberries,
for the way their sweetness symbolizes summer.
Thank you for the beauty of roses,
red and yellow and white and pink,
their fragrance, the delicateness of their petals.
Thank you for the sun and the wind after so much rain.
Your love surrounding us in so many sensory ways.
Bring life in our own hearts,
which are in places dead and cold.
We have relationships that we’ve given up on.
We think peace can never come between warring nations.
We can’t see a way to stop environmental destruction.
Right in the midst of the muck of our despairs,
you plant a seed of hope.
Help us nurture new life with small steps towards peace;
a kind word even when someone is mean to us,
faithful prayers for the people of warring countries,
and gifts to agencies that work for peace.
Or the small step of conservation,
the step of noticing the world, not walking by,
taking care and giving care to the lives of the creatures
with whom we share this world.
Peace comes to the world in pieces,
small pieces, which you piece together
in ways too mysterious for us to understand.
The tiniest seeds growing beyond our wildest hopes.
Prince of Peace, Prince of all pieces,
be our Saviour, now and forever. Amen.
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I am a Mennonite pastor currently teaching theology at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, Ontario. I’ve served congregations in Ontario and most recently, Alberta.