We touch the signs …

We touch the signs,
we read the textures —
bark, stone and steel.

We feel for patterns —
free-ranging, life-giving.

We touch on something multilayered —
surface, summons, a peering-through.

Touched by touching.

O God, whose descent into flesh
depends on our response,
we praise you.

For those before us who have made you known,
for ancestors glimpsed in light and shade,
veiled and valent
in cloud, smoke and mist,
in hints and subtleties,
the tender touch and rub of mutual regard.

We give you thanks.

To touch and see the simplicity of God,
the simplicity of God’s agenda,
a creativity higher than human ambition.

To know you here right now
in surrendered Spirit,
in love’s relief,
in the pattern of our lives.

This is our prayer.
Amen.

Prayer by Miriam, Alison, Jane and Andrew (SSUC Liturgy Resource) after Marg Vazey, ‘Untitled’, tracing paper, graphite rubbings, sheer fabric, cotton thread, 2022.