Deliver

I try to make a habit of praying in the car before I get out at the church each morning to take pictures.  Every day the prayers are different and this morning I found myself reciting the words, "deliver us."

They're words we should be familiar with as they are part of The Lord's Prayer and yet like the words in the hymn yesterday, they lose meaning the more times we say them.

And yet something happened this morning and those words took root in my heart and I realized, for the first time, what I was pleading for.

Deliver me.

Take me from where I currently am and bring me closer to you God.  Take me from a place of sadness and grief and bring me closer to where you are, God, a place of joy and strength and unending love.

The first thing I heard this morning after praying and leaving the car was the cry of a hawk in the trees in front of the church.  He was answered by another hawk, far away, across the water and then yet another hawk back behind the church deep in the woods.

Over and over, they called to each other and I began to make my way back to the woods because I could hear that hawk coming closer and closer.

And then there it was, soaring in the sky and between the trees.

He had been called and he had come.

And I thanked God right then for all the blessings I have been given.  True joy abounds.