Tend and Protect: Outside Series - Tim Knipp (Gen. 4:9; 2:15; Num. 3:7; 8:26; 18:5)

We have been
called to care for
and tend 
our world
and one another.
Working in concert
with the giver of life -
trimming
and weeding
and feeding - 
we are rewarded
with beauty,
sustenance,
the promise of 
shalom.

Priests to the earth,
we kneel
to render our
work of 
service-worship.
Adorning earth's temple,
we mow grass
and shovel manure:
our holy orders.

Let us be shaped
and pruned
as we serve
and protect,
keep and tend.

Growing things
reveal intricacies 
of God's character,
like peeling layers
of onion releases
pungencies,
earthy and sharp;
as planting a seed
in darkness 
begins a process
of new life -
buried
to rise anew.