Daily Worship

COSTLY GIFTS

Norah Summers November 23, 2015 0 0

John 15: 12-13

My commandment is this: love one another, just as I love you. The greatest love you can have for your friends is to give your life for them.

But I have a lot of questions
to ask of the God of love.

In this season of Remembrance,
we speak glibly of “those who laid down their lives” in wars and conflicts -

Did they go willingly to this sacrifice?
Did they think it was for their friends –
or against their enemies?

Did they lay down their lives?
Or were their lives exacted from them?

Do we now appreciate what they were giving, 
and what they were giving up?

Can we live easy with their sacrifice?

And where,
in this riven world,
Is the peace that they thought they were buying?

Dear God,
every day brings us fresh news of atrocities,
of bloodshed,
of hatred.

Where is your love,
your peace?

God of Love, Prince of Peace, 
may your Spirit
give strength and wisdom and patience and love
to all who work and negotiate for peace,
that the sacrifices of the past may not be in vain,
but acknowledged,
respected, 
and learned from.