Morning prayer · 15 December

Restless until it rests

A small restless pebble keeps bouncing and rattling around the inside of a bowl, unable to settle, until it finally comes to rest in the still curve at the very bottom.

Lord, you are great, and so worthy of praise. Your power is great, and your wisdom has no end. And we want to praise you, we who are only a tiny part of what you’ve made. We carry our mortality around with us, a sign of our sin and a sign that you oppose the proud. Yet still we want to praise you, small as we are. You wake us up to delight in praising you, because you made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you. Amen.

Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised; His greatness is unsearchable.

Psalm 145:3 (BSB)

Adapted from St Augustine, Confessions (tr. E. B. Pusey, 1838), in plain words. The verse is from the Berean Standard Bible (public domain). Drawing: Mutter.