A Prayer

Lord,

You are our God. You are the one who is so very close to us. And yet, there is so much mystery that surrounds You. We had a beginning, a starting point, but You have none. We can take a little bit of this and some of that to cook up some very interesting tools, computers that fit in our pockets, space stations that orbit our planet, medicines that defeat diseases. But You can create new things completely out of nothing. We are very dependant on things like food and air. But You need nothing outside Yourself. And then, You are three Person and yet, at the same time, one God.

We know enough to say these things about You, but we really don't understand what they mean. We find You to be very mysterious so that there is a part of us that says, 'Who are You, really?'

And yet, You are our God. You have done some amazing things so that we can call You, 'Father'. You have come in Jesus to rescue us. And by the Holy Spirit You live within each of us. You are very near to us. Immanuel.

Lord God, there is so much that is not even a little clear about You, but You have made some things clear enough. So, in the midst of that tension, we worship You and we enjoy You. While You are a very mysterious God, You are our God. And that is very good.

We do have a request, Lord - actually two requests. First, we ask that You would develop in us a greater sense of Your mystery. We need to feel the difference. You are God, and we are not. You regularly do things that we cannot even imagine doing. We need to feel deep in our bones the enormity of the gap between You as God and us as mere creatures. We need to feel awe. This will help us to worship You better.

We also ask that You would develop in us a greater sense of Your nearness to us. You are our loving Father, our faithful Savior, our comforting Spirit. You are close to us in ways that no mere human could ever be. It is as we grow in our sense of this nearness that we can experience great comfort. This will help us to worship You better.

We are grateful that the development of these things is not limited to our brief lives now. We will have an eternity to see more clearly Your mysteriousness and Your nearness. And that will mean an eternity of ever deeper worship. We look forward to that.

But as long as we exist in the here and now, we are eager to know You better as the amazing God that You are so that we will live in a way that will make You look as good as You actually are. Amen.