When our hearts
are winter-heavy, cold and dark with loss,
When we are exposed
to hostile gales,
When our lives
pause, lying flat and unproductive
and seem not to stir,
God who is always faithful to your people
through long waiting,
help us
that we may not be a wasteland, but a field
lying fallow.
Help us not to rush
to fill the emptiness with noise and bustle
or lose ourselves in screens:
but rather
teach us to wait; help us to glimpse the God-span
beyond human time.
As the earth transforms
the dropped decaying petals of the summer
to feed new shoots
Help us to see your darkness as a gift.
Help us to make our loss a source of growth.
Help us to be still
And silent.
So that when a seed falls, we may be ready
to receive new life.