I give you thanks, O God, for all the blessings of my life.
I thank you for the blessings I recognize
and also for the ones that don’t look much like blessings.
I thank you for your promise to work in everything for good.
I thank you for your constant love
to me, a sinner,
who will never be perfect, no matter how hard I try –
and for your faithfulness during the wretched times
when, feeling I must earn your love,
I despair of your transforming grace.
I thank you that you make my life and my home
the gate of heaven,
opening to you through work and play, sleeping and rising,
family and friends, pots and pans, lawn mowers and mops,
dust, laundry, books, and computer.
Most of all, I am grateful that no matter how often I fall,
I can never fall out of you.
You wrap me about whether I am sad or jubilant or sinful,
and even when I am pulling away from you.
When I grope in darkness, with no sense of your presence,
you grip me by the hand.
When fear constricts my mind,
you lure me into the broad plains of your peace.
When I thirst in my heart’s desert,
Your living water sustains me, though I may not know it.
Whenever I raise my eyes toward heaven,
it is because I am already found in you.
And whenever I fall,
I fall into your everlasting arms.
The eternal God is your dwelling place,
and underneath are the everlasting arms.
(Deuteronomy 33:27 RSV)