Bless our pending trip
here at its first christening.
Bless the days to come:
The days of duties undone,
unbuckled, unbound.
Bless our pilgrim quest for restoration!
Prepare our hearts to revel in new exploration
of cities not our own,
and of landscapes less familiar.
Along our way, in such places
whose contours you deliberately created,
may we pause to savor the evidences
of your diverse imagination
expressed in glories of scenery,
and in an artistry of peoples and cultures. . . .
In our days away let us play
together. Let us laugh together.
Let us be moved to speak
such meaningful words
as ought to be spoken
among family and friends.
Let us linger long at tables and drink deeply
of one another’s company, enjoying each
for who they are with the steady pressures
of our ordinary days now lifted. . . .
Bless our journey and our arrival.
Bless our days spent away.
And bless also our eventual passage home, that
we might return as those who have been revived,
with hopes resurrected,
delight restored,
hearts readied again for
forward movement into life,
strength renewed to shoulder once more
the meaningful labors assigned to us
in this season.
You are our rest, Jesus.
May this vacation serve your holy purposes.
May the deep enjoyment
and the grand adventure of it
stir within us eternal longings,
whetting our anticipation
of that best holiday celebration
that will one day
encompass all days,
and all of heaven
and all of earth.
Amen.
