Prayer of Thanks for Hoes & Scythes & Spatulas & Toothbrushes & Binoculars & the Myriad Other Tools & Instruments That Fit Our Hands So Gracefully & Allow Us to Work with a Semblance of Deftitude

Lovely little inventions, just right for the job at hand—a lawn edger, for example, or an arrow, or the keyboard on which I hammer this sentence. Thank You for giving our species the chance to be creative. Thank You for giving us the chance to bring ideas to bear against illness. Thank You for giving us a chance to keep evolving past violence and greed and toward a real communion of souls no matter what color or language or religion or personal angle on the world. Thank You for giving us a chance to rise from mold to our current astonishing wet machinery. Thank You for letting everything else rise too in all sorts of wild directions. Thank You for starting the ball rolling whenever and however it was exactly You did that, which we of course are not quite sure of at the moment. Thank You for letting us rise to be mostly curious and energetic beings itching to find out why and how and if. Thank You for not being a Dictator. Thank You for the mystery of why You are letting loose to make a better world or ruin it. You puzzle us; we beseech You constantly for intercession; but we know full well in our deepest hearts that some aspect of Your genius is to let us try for the light on our own. We hate that, sometimes, but we pray in gratitude for Your mysterious wisdom. And so: amen.

Excerpted from A Book of Uncommon Prayer, copyright ©2014 by Brian Doyle. Used with permission of the publisher, Sorin Books, an imprint of Ave Maria Press®, Inc., P.O. Box 428, Notre Dame, IN 46556, Ava Maria Press.