In the many resources created and curated by the ELCA, there are prayers and blessings and readings for all sorts of occasions. We’re probably familiar with the regularly used ones: Sunday morning worship, mostly. There’s also things for special occasions, like Holy Week and Advent and Pentecost. Then there are resources to help churches connect with civic, non-religious holidays, like Father’s Day, Juneteenth, and Memorial Day. Past all of that, there are ordinary blessings for everyday things: a blessing for travelers, for a community garden, for the transition from school to summer. That school-to-summer one goes like this:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge God, and God will make straight your paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Let us pray. We give you thanks, O God, for the ways you speak to us and through us. Increase in us a desire for wisdom and insight that we may use what we have learned for the sake of the common good. We pray in the name of the one who taught disciples and told stories, Jesus our Savior. Amen.

You have learned and taught.

Thanks be to God!

You have grown and matured.

Thanks be to God!

You have explored and created.

Thanks be to God!

You have loved and been loved.

Thanks be to God!

Now, enter into rest and play, the re-creation of summer. And all God’s people said:

Amen!

 

Ordinary things, like the end of school year, are just as worthy of prayer and blessing as our big holy days. Blessings like this one remind us that God cares about everyday stuff. The end of the school year. The summer roadtrip. The cucumbers and tomatoes planted to share with neighbors. All are opportunities to thank God and ask God’s blessing.

This summer, as the students and teachers among us transition from school to summer, we ask God to bless the ordinary moments. Coffee on your back porch. A bike ride along the High Trestle Trail. Lunch with a friend at the senior center. An afternoon at the pool. An outdoor concert on a warm summer evening. A book that makes you laugh out loud. An hour spent studying Jonah. A slice of pie.

May God bless your ordinary moments. May each blessing remind you to give thanks to God who blesses abundantly. May your ordinary blessings multiply and may they be shared this summer. Amen.