A prayer for this Easter season taken from my book Prayers for All Seasons, offering a reminder that the joyful message of the resurrection holds true each and every day.
Mighty God,
we praise you for the great surprise of Easter –
your transformation of what had seemed the end
into a new beginning;
your turning of what had seemed the triumph of evil
into the victory of love.
God of the unexpected,
hear our prayer.
We praise you for the way you changed the lives
of Jesus’ followers –
turning sorrow into celebration,
doubt to faith,
questions to answers,
confusion to confidence,
darkness to light.
God of the unexpected,
hear our prayer.
Forgive us that we too,
like the Apostles arriving at the tomb,
are sometimes deceived by appearances.
We make judgements based on our own limited assumptions,
and we lose faith
when life doesn’t measure up to our expectations.
We imagine we have all the answers,
and we are frightened when we find we have not.
We reject truths that do not fit in with our view of the world,
and then are puzzled
when we cannot make sense of things.
God of the unexpected,
hear our prayer.
Forgive us for doubting your love,
for losing sight of your purpose,
for questioning your power.
Forgive us for ignoring your promises,
for diminishing your greatness,
for forgetting that your ways are not our ways
nor your thoughts our thoughts.
God of the unexpected,
hear our prayer.
We pray for all those unable to make sense
of the situations they find themselves in,
their hopes shattered by their experiences of life –
those who are anxious, fearful, disillusioned, depressed,
faced perhaps by inexplicable suffering, sorrow or evil,
or having lost their homes, their employment,
their livelihoods, their loved ones;
afflicted by disease, disability, disaster,
or exploited, oppressed,
deprived of their basic human dignity.
God of the unexpected,
hear our prayer.
May the surprise of Easter burst afresh into their lives and our own,
revealing new possibilities to life
and a new dimension to your love,
giving new meaning to each day and every moment,
bringing new strength and opportunities,
offering new hope for the future
and renewed purpose in the present.
May this day we celebrate teach us to expect the unexpected!
God of the unexpected,
hear our prayer,
in the name of the risen and victorious Christ.
Amen.