Not-New Phrases.

You are the God of beginning and birth and newness. At the dawn of the day, we can hardly dismiss Your staggering way of genesis among us.

And yet, in the many crevices of our hearts, we notice that which is not new and territories where there is no newness.

We hear Your radical promises of healing, and we remember those in Turkey who are newly without homes or clean water or daughters or daddies.

We read of Your infinite willingness to make alive, and images come to mind of mothers searching the rubble for their babes.

You said, good God. You said.

And we want to believe.

But we imagine You distant and hidden in these places where there is no newness …

yet.

Would You give us imaginations of faith to see and anticipate the inception of Your mercies; grant us the willingness to dream again in prayer and petitions for a world of birth in place of this death.

Grace us with Your Self in the darkness of these not-new phrases, give us the courage to whisper "yet".