Blossom Showers

Sitting in the garden nook we created last year, complete with stone table, wall fountian and the neighbor's jasmine vine curling through our fence, Tina and I shared our morning prayer today, along with coffee and cereal. A study in contrasts -- one the one hand, the sounds of the city swirling around, sirens, rush hour on the freeway, the bus stop out front, dogs barking on the alley. On the other, the orange side of our orange/grapefruit tree is in full, exhuberent bloom and rained down on us the pungent blossoms that were letting go, creating a sweet carpet around our feet. The words of peace on our lips. The world goes on while we pause. God is in the alley, God is at our stone table. We are free to pause.

One of our reacings included the Methodist Covenant Prayer, something I first came across on a tapestry in the John Wesley Memorial Church in Oxford, on our sabbatical 18 years ago. I copied it down in my journal then, and have come across it from time to time. I am always struck by the sense of free abandon in it. As we prepare to return to Oxford in 10 days for the next leg of our sabbatical, I pray that I can live the essence of this prayer:


METHODIST COVENANT PRAYER
I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt,
Rank me with whom thou wilt;
Put me to doing, put me to suffering;
Let me be employed for thee
or laid aside for thee;
Let me be exhalted for thee
or brought low for thee;
Let me be full, let me be empty;
Let me have all things,
let me have nothing;
I freely and heartily yield all things
to Thy pleasure and disposal.

And now, O glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
Thou art mine, and I am thine.
So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.