A Prayer for the Vulnerability to Love

God of radical welcome,

with mercy and grace you open yourself to us.

You make yourself vulnerable to us.

You are beyond us, unfathomable to us, and yet it is not below you to sit with us,

to hear us, to cry with us, to be seen with us as one of us.

From your own vulnerability and by your grace you have welcomed us to be vulnerable to you,

honest with you, open to you, seen by you.

You are not the God they say you are--the one who stands at a distance in superiority and condescension.

You love us.

And you want to be loved by us.

You want to become one who is loved by your beloved.

Such grace we cannot understand--grace enough that we do not need to understand.

And yet... let us ask again for the grace you already give, for the love we're already receiving.

Let us ask for grace that we may love you more.

And by grace may we learn the vulnerability of loving as you love us, to be seen as you are seen even among us.

In the name of the crucified and risen Christ. Amen.

Wes Ellis