Welcome God Into This Day

by Christine Sine

I wrote this prayer a couple of days ago, but when I read it this morning my initial thought was Why do I feel I need to welcome the ever-present, omnipotent God into the day? If I really believe God is present in every moment and every place surely it is more a matter of God welcoming me into the day. Then I realized how often I ignore or fail to acknowledge the ever-present One in my thoughts and words and deeds. I do indeed need to welcome God into my day because God stands at the door and knocks but will not enter until I open myself to the divine presence in that moment and that place.

So often we shut God out of our pains because they are hard for us to confront and we are afraid of what God might say to us in the midst of them. We fail to notice the beauty because our eyes are focused on our screens. And we fail to relish the joys of the day because we are so consumed with the next task we want to accomplish that we don’t take time for joy.

It is not so much that we shut God out of the day, but that we shut God out of our experience of it. In welcoming God into the day we are reminding ourselves that God is indeed present in every experience and emotion that fills our day. We are saying God you are here; we don’t want to shut you out; we welcome you.

At the moment The Gift of Wonder is bringing me great joy as are the delightful arrivals of my adopted grandchildren May and Lucy into my life. There is also pain that I need to acknowledge and invite God into – my personal pain of continuing facial pain and discomfort, but also the ongoing ache of watching friends struggle with cancer and the frailties of old age. Then there is the societal pain that seems to confront me at every turn – racial injustice, migrants at the border, climate crisis, gender abuse. So many places that I need to acknowledge in my daily experiences and invite God into. Only then can I receive God’s wisdom, counsel comfort and love.

I find increasingly that in our fast paced life, I need to pause frequently and commit my experiences and my emotions to God. Only as I face the reality of who I am and what is going on in our world can I really enjoy the intimacy of a God who cares for me and welcomes me into every aspect of my day.