Father, we praise you for the love you have shown to us in Jesus.  We praise you that you have set your love upon us from all eternity.  You plotted and planned to pursue and to rescue us.  When we were dead in transgressions and sins, you gave us life.  When we loved our sin, when we lived to please ourselves, when we planned and plotted and schemed for our own glory, to make a name for ourselves, you came to us in Jesus.  You broke through our hard, encrusted hearts, and you brought us salvation, gave us life, you brought us into the light, you brought us to yourself.

You delight to save sinners; you are eager to redeem what is lost.  You exult in the simple and awkward act of worship by a neglected and despised widow.  You choose a prostitute to populate the family line of the Messiah.  You rush out to meet the returning prodigal.  You sit down and eat with tax-collectors and sinners.  You choose your murderous enemy to be your Apostle.  You welcome into paradise the thief on the cross.  You gently restore the one who denied you again and again and again.  We praise you, Father, that you are so unlike us.  Our hearts are small, but you are a Magnanimous Giver of all good things.

We praise you, Father, for your forgiveness.  We praise you, Father, that your mercies are always already arriving into our lives, greeting us in the morning, walking with us throughout the day, meeting us wherever we go.

We praise you for uniting us to Christ by your Spirit.  We praise you for uniting us to one another, for making us a family.  We praise you, Father, for Jesus, our Savior, who taught us to pray…

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.