Thursday in the Second Week of Lent
You strengthen me more and more;
you enfold and comfort me.
Psalm 71:21
As I gather myself for early morning prayer, I hear the ding of a text message. A friend who wants me to know she is praying for me and asks, “are there other things you would like me to pray for?”
Throughout my life I have been sustained by the prayers of others. As a young child, by my mother’s friend who laid her hand on my fevered forehead. As a teenager, kneeling at the altar rail asking for strength and courage. In college, by companions in a campus prayer group. As an overwhelmed new mother, during a family tragedy, in times of grief.
And today I am strengthened by the gift of extraordinary prayer on an ordinary morning. As I am enfolded and comforted by this connection, I am suddenly lifted into that place where I know myself one of a chorus, proclaiming our praise and fear and grief and hope and supplication and thanksgiving in a song that continues to sound across time and space. Thank you, Jesus.
