God, today I want to intentionally thank you for my body.
I don’t remember the last time, if ever, I did this.
Perhaps because I take this gift of flesh and blood for granted.
Perhaps because I have a complicated relationship with my body:
Grateful yet resentful, appreciative but critical, careful yet reckless.
Thank you for this body that allows me to experience life,
To co-create life, to nurture life – life in myself, and life for others.
This body that allows me to love and to receive loved.
That stows away my life experiences
Hiding them deep within for the day when it is safe to release them.
This body that creates and catalogues memories for future pleasure.
God, my body isn’t all I want it to be
and sometimes it won’t do all I want it to.
But I am stunned, awestruck even, that this frail and feeble body
Is a temple – a place of worship and encounter – with You!
That You, our Creator, took on flesh and blood yourself,
Blessing, honouring, dignifying our bodies.
And then, in a stunning turn, you gave your body,
to once again, give new life to the world.
May my body, my breath, be a reminder of your constant presence.
Amen