A prayer given at Hope College’s Christmas Vespers service, December 2005 in Holland, MI.
Eternal God,
Tonight,
In this moment,
In this place,
With open hearts
of anticipation,
In the silence between notes
Of your coming,
We sing hallelujah!
We sing hallelujah
for even as you authored space,
You wrote yourself into our place,
Speaking your Word into our moment
When you walked through history’s back door
As the lamb of God
Who takes away the
sins of the world.
Tonight, We sing ‘Holy night!’
For You took the time
To step into our time,
Emptying yourself
of power to reveal
real power.
We sing ‘O come Immanuel’
For You wore our flesh,
Walked our paths,
and felt our sorrow
to satisfy our deepest
and best desire.
We sing ‘King of Kings’
And ‘Lord and Lords’
For you came to do for us what
We could not do for ourselves.
Tonight, we eagerly long in hope for your coming again,
That your rule, inaugurated first in Christ,
Will be consummated, complete,
And your righteousness reign
Over all space and time.
Then we will feast at your royal banquet,
And sing, like it was sung tonight,
Songs of praises
Echoing the choirs of heaven.
Tonight, in this space,
In this moment,
Be in our waiting,
filling us with gratitude overflowing
That we may share life and love in praise to you,
God of all ages.
In the gracious name of Jesus, your son,
The root of Jesse, the prince of peace,
Immanuel, God with us,
now and forever.
Amen.
(Header image courtesy of Hope College.)