Bird. A prayer.

Spiritual resource to share:  everyday gratitude

The nieces come for a visit

We have a family prayer before dinner that we have been saying....well ever since we've become a family, so that's over 21 years ago.  It starts out by addressing our Father-Mother God, thanks the people who prepared the meal, thanks the land that produced the meal and in its grand finale, blesses everyone.

Now that our two sons are in college, we thought this might be a good time to update our prayer.  Enter my nieces: The eight year old twins and the four year old.  They spent a day and a night with us, full of exploring the marshy areas and the beach in our neighborhood.  They got their fill of frogs, toads, ducks, deer, fox, and all kinds of birds - which especially caught the attention of Sophie - the youngest.

That night we ate pizza and a salad (that the girls helped make with the brocoli and tomatoes they picked from our garden).  We ate outside on the deck, waiting for the hummingbirds and chickadees that regularly show up at this time.  I shared our family prayer, saying it slowly so that they would catch how full of gratitude and how inclusive it was, and how simple and direct it was. Then I asked them if they could update our family prayer.

Sophie said she had a prayer she wanted to share.  "All right Sophie, let's hear it."  I said.

"Bird."

"Is that it?"

"Yes.  Bird."

"I see."

There is a song I rarely sing from the Christian Science Hymnal.  It's Hymn 284 with words written by James Montgomery.  It seems to set up the criteria pretty well for what a prayer should be.

Prayer is the heart's sincere desire, 

Uttered or unexpressed;

The motion of a hidden fire

That trembles in the breast.

Prayer is the simplest form of speech

That infant lips can try;

And prayer's sublimest strain doth reach

The Majesty on high.

Sophie's prayer was all that.  It was eloquent, simple, and included what she was most passionate about that day, and it was a recognition of some of God's most gloriest stuff.

Bird.  Our new family dinner prayer. 

One of the many sources of inspiration for Sophie's prayer.