As a person of faith, I have prayed and heard prayers all my life. Prayers are expressions of the deepest longings of the human heart cast before the mysterious, creative reality that many call God. In a recent Sunday service, an elder prayed before the sharing of the Lord’s Supper. He spoke my heart. I want to share this prayer by my friend Clark Williamson.

We do not come to this your table, O gracious and compassionate God, trusting in our own righteousness because, frankly, we are not such hot stuff. We come because you call us, one by one, by name, as you called the people Israel, by name, as Jesus called all his disciples, one by one, by name. So you call us one by one by name, to this table, and we are here because we are wanted. Many of us know what it is “not to be wanted” and what a victory it is to know and accept that in fact we are accepted. Amen

My heart was broken with gratitude for the words that speak the longings of each human heart and the good news that the holy creator knows and wants each of us. Would that our lives could share that gift with those we know.