Creator God, thank you that we are a connected people.
We talk about connections all the time;
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 flightplans.
We are more connected with each other than at any other time in history and yet…
something isn’t right.
Sometimes we are overwhelmed, there are too many people to connect with.
And we are so frantic in our drive to be connected,
that we neglect the elemental connection with those right in front of us,
friend and stranger whose eyes try to meet us,
while we stare at our screens.
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 within our country like North Carolina and New York City.
Places with barbed wire and bomb craters across the world
Places in our own homes and communities and even the church
where we feel like we’re speaking across a great divide.
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.
