7. November 2021
O God, who has set us in a world of soaring beauty, and profound mystery, / who has enclosed our years within the eternal context of fragrant spring mornings, and sparkling winter nights, / who has granted us, over the years, the lilt of lively companionship, the provocation of ideas and personalities, the sheer, clear point of joy in creating a thing of loveliness, or of excellence, the steady, solid support of friendships tried, and tested, / we thank you. / Above all we thank you, for the first flowing of conscience. / We look back, and we recognize, in ourselves, the dawning of a conviction that life is not simply a random series of opportunities and disappointments. / We look back, and we acknowledge that our life has been a gift, a gift to be accepted - savoured, a gift to be lived out, fully lived out between the twin poles of freedom and responsibility. // And now we step forward in this freedom and this responsibility. / Free in the knowledge of how little is really essential. / Responsible in the conviction of how much is desperately needed. / Help us, living God, to maintain this tension, this heart-rending, heart-healing tension. / And in all this grant us that elusive tenderness that blesses all it touches, / that grace which is the flame of love, leaping up in our hearts, and setting our lives afire. / Amen.
Barrie Shepherd, Presbyterian Church of Aotearea New Zealand