This still life: a prayer for New Year’s Day

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Psalm 8:3-4

On my desk, where I wrestle with your word,
week in and week out,
–year in today–
sits a new journal,
and beside it,
this still life:
coffee,
a Christmas present coaster,
a mug of pens,
and on top of the printer
a stack of things I put aside,
precarious,
until the new year,
until today.

So much is unwritten,
each of us so small in the greater scheme of your creation.
(I am so small.)

Who are we that you pay attention to us?

I can only trust that it is true,
and keep paying attention to you,
this new year, every new day.

Martha Spong is a UCC pastor, executive director of RevGalBlogPals and a clergy coach. She is editor of The Words of Her Mouth: Psalms for the Struggle, coming in January 2020 — this month! — and There’s a Woman in the Pulpit, both featuring writers from the RevGalBlogPals community, as well as co-author of Denial is My Spiritual Practice (and Other Failures of Faith) with Rachel Hackenberg.

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