Great Connector Prayer

Creator God,
thank you that we are a connected people.
We are connected in ways
other generations could never have imagined;
connected with wires and radio waves,
fibre optic cables and the internet,
connected with roads and train tracks
and airline flight plans.
We are more connected with each other
than at any other time in history and yet…
something isn’t right.
Sometimes we are overwhelmed
because there are too many people to connect with.
Sometimes we are so frantic in our drive to be connected,
we end up isolated, neglecting  the elemental connection
with those right in front of us.
We stare at screens instead of into the eyes
of the friends and strangers who need us.
Open our eyes and hearts to the connections
you would have us pursue.
Thank you for placing us on planet earth,
a world where we are inextricably connected.
We breathe the air with other creatures,
we walk the same earth, we return to dust like them.
Help us to revel in this global family life,
to nourish it, to protect it, to steward it.
God of grace, there are places in the world
where the disconnect between people
is so deep and so wide, we don’t know what to do with it.
Places with walls, like Palestine and Israel, Gaza.
Places with barbed wire and bomb craters, like _____________.
Places with political parties that cannot talk, like  __________.
Places in our own homes and communities
where we feel like we’re speaking across a great divide.
There are people in our community
who are living in the land of sickness,
the land of great pain, the land of depression.
Some feel separation and estrangement from life as they knew it.
Help us to reach out, to offer your love,
to be practical in our efforts to comfort.
You are the Great Connector,
you brought this great world into being.
Re-create us in your image.
Fill us with your uniting Spirit.
This is what we’re praying, in the name of Jesus,
who came to connect us with you forever. Amen.