CHRISTMAS PRAYERS 3

‘Home’…Lord, how deep our need of it, and how greatly, when our homes are secure, we take them for granted. So, Lord, my Lord who was yourself homeless both as an infant and in your ministry, I bring to you:

My thanks for the homes you have given me throughout my life (through no virtue of my own):

The home in which I was born, and the love that awaited me

The home of my childhood and youth, and its care and protection

The home I was first responsible for, and your blessing of it

The homes I have shared with others; their joys and sorrows

The home in which this day I come to another Christmas.

Lord, in gratitude and love I thank you and I bring to you all those who this Christmas are without a home:

Those who have lost their homes through natural disasters, hurricanes and floods

Those who were driven from their homes by war and terror

Those who lost their homes through poverty

Those who were driven from their homes by unkindness

Those abandoning their homes through folly

Those who seek continually for a home and cannot find one.

Lord, send them your help through their fellow human beings’ concern and practical aid – and may I play my own part in such care. And, Lord, I thank you that all the kindliness and security of the happiest home I have known is but a foreshadowing of that home I shall one day know with you; beyond all grief, beyond all transcendence, beyond anything that might harm or threaten, held in the loveliness of your presence. This Christmas is your affirmation that this is your gift to us, O homeless One…So bring me home, Lord. Amen.

(Ruth Etchells, Safer than a Known Way, p.154-155)