January's Prayer

I'm a collector. I collect seeds and quilts, sparkly costume jewelry and rocks. For the past several years (ever since completing Girl Talk . . . God Talk: What Your Friends Can Teach You About Prayer) I've been collecting prayers. I think the prayers - printed off the Internet, clipped from church bulletins, scratched on scrap paper - which I keep in an everyday manila folder have become my favorite collection. It struck me today, as I was praying an online prayer, that it might be a good idea to share a monthly prayer on this blog. Following is January's Prayer and the story behind it:

January's Prayer is a little quixotic. Still, it's particularly poignant to me this month as I pray for my dear friend, Margie's husband, John, whose bones have been weakened, compromised, excruciatingly pained by metastasized Brain Cancer. A couple short years ago, I stood beside Margie as she labored valiantly and bore her first son. I watched as John caught his newly born baby boy, fresh from God! This summer -in disbelief - I listened to stories of a man in China sending healing herbs for John because his fiercely aggressive and relentless Brain Cancer had begun to compromise cells in John's blood and bones.

As I read January's Prayer for the first time, I was struck at some of the intercedings: mend broken bones, bring wholeness again . . catch my babies . . . show me the medicine of the healing herbs. This prayer has been prayed for hundreds of years, yet today it was perfectly pertinent to John: to the specific details of his life. It always strikes me as more than serendipity when ancient prayers echo the cries of our current, contemporary hearts!

The last stanza of the prayer reads, heal my heart/so that I can see/the gifts of yours that can live through me. It has struck me silly, as I've walked with John and Margie through this difficult season that God's gifts of Grace, Beauty, Faithfulness, Hope, Assurance, and Love have been living through my friends. For more on their inspirational, honest, daily journey, check out Margie's blog: http://margiefawcett.blogspot.com/

Before, I share January's Prayer, it is interesting to consider its first line: Mother, sing me a song . . .

If we're used to addressing God as Father, the invocation can throw us for a loop until we consider the God of the Psalms under whose wings we take refuge, who is near to the brokenhearted, who pulls us close to his divine breast. Or if we consider the God of Matthew 23:37, who says, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing." Healing is such a maternal act of nurturing, nesting grace. When we ask God for a healing touch, it can be comforting to imagine the Lord of Life with a divinely maternal side; and maybe even call God Mother.
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Native American Prayer for Healing

Mother, sing me a song

That will ease my pain.

Mend broken bones

Bring wholeness again.

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Catch my babies
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When they are born,

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Sing my death song,
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Teach me how to mourn.
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Show me the medicine

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Of the healing herbs,
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The value of Spirit,
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The way I can serve.

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Mother, heal my heart

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So that I can see
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The gifts of yours

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That can live through me.
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After publishing this post, I was thinking about collecting prayers. I decided God is a collector of prayers too: our prayers! Amen.