New coronavirus prayer 18

Here’s another new coronavirus prayer, to help support and encourage you during the continuing crisis.

So much at present, Lord, seems to deny your love,
to question your goodness,
to undermine the claims we make concerning your care for all.
For thousands have died,
and countless more continue to do so;
lives are being wrecked
and futures turned upside down;
the whole world left reeling,
in turmoil,
faced with challenges likely to continue for years to come.
And though we know that this pandemic we’re facing
is not ultimately down to you,
we cannot help but wonder why you have allowed it to happen,
why you did not somehow step in to stop it,
and why you permit such misery to continue.
It forces us to rethink what we believe;
to challenge simplistic understandings of who you are
and how you work;
and to recognise that, truly, your ways are not our ways,
nor your thoughts our thoughts.
Yet we need also to keep believing,
keep trusting all the more,
for when we do not understand,
and struggle to make sense of faith,
there, so often, we start to catch glimpses of truth,
if only through a glass darkly.
For all our limitations and confusion,
we throw ourselves upon your grace,
your compassion,
your will,
your power,
assured that though we lose sight of you,
you will never lose sight of us.
Amen.