Father,
We come to You, the
God who is over all creation. We come with questions. What does it
mean to be You? You have no beginning. What could that possibly mean? You
depend on no one and nothing outside of Yourself; so very different from us.
You are outside of time and space. How is that possible? And yet, You are also
right here with us. You have no body but are pure spirit. And You, the one God,
are three, Father, Son and Spirit. What does it mean to be You?
You are surrounded
by mysteries, mysteries that we will never be able to understand. And yet, You
are the God about whom some things are abundantly clear. You are the God who
has deep affection for us, Your people, a deep affection that was even willing to
suffer for us. The mystery here is why You would bother.
Father, in light of
all of this, there are some important things that we need to learn. And so, we
ask that You would teach us. Having some faint understanding of who You are we
ask that You would teach us about who we are.
Please, make it clear
to us that we are weak and small and powerless. Show us that we are not at all
that important. Our role in this world is so terribly small. Not long after we
are gone, we will not be missed. You are necessary, but we are superfluous. You
are the infinite God and we are very finite creatures. Teach us these things,
Father, so that we would live wisely, according to reality. Teach us so that we
would be humbled.
We live in a time
when Your Name is not hallowed. There is little fear of You as God. Among so
many, You are just some doting grandfather. And others simply ignore You,
thinking that You don’t exist.
Please, do not let us
be tainted by any of this foolishness. Grant to us the ability to know You well
in Your majesty and power. Grant to us a greater sense of wonder at who You
are. This, after all, is why Jesus has come, so that Your elect would get to really
know You as the amazing God that You are so that we would be moved to worship You.
Please grant us the grace that we need to make more progress toward this goal.
And we ask this through Christ our Lord, Amen.