Read by Helen Laurenson

Loving God, creator of everything we know, we worship you as we feel your touch at every point of our lives. God, creator of love and relationships, who brightens the clouds with the rainbow’s arc and promises your presence in both cloud and sunshine, we thank you for the promise fulfilled, that you are love and that you love us all.

As we enter the season of Lent and look once more at the life and death of Jesus, watching as he travels like us into the wilderness of life where struggles are lost and won, faith is tested and future directions found. We confess that we are not always ready or strong as he was to face all that the wilderness might bring us but you meet us in all the struggles of life and lighten our load.

Forgive us for all the good we have failed to do and help us to travel trustingly with you, with our minds set on your promise that, for us, rain will fall in the desert and after the storm a rainbow will light the heavens and we will be made new through Christ our Lord.

Amen