We love you, O God,
because you have heard the voice of our supplications,
because you have inclined your ear to us whenever we called upon you,
bringing us time and again out of despair into hope, out of death into new life.
Even now in this time of pandemic shall we trust you, although the numbers are beyond our comprehension. We can't even name, let alone mourn, the lives lost, countries locked down, people trying to shelter in place, so many families disrupted, so many at risk of starvation. Yet you, O God, have known and adored us before we were even born. You count the hairs on every head. You accompany every person who dies, and comfort every person who grieves.
O God, we pray you, save our lives.
Even now we shall trust for we see your saving hand at work in so many ways, large and small.
*Thousands of scientists, researchers, doctors and other health professionals sharing ideas and data across national boundaries, across the globe in the rush to find a vaccine, a cure.
*Oregon, U.S. high school student Eric Kim who is making clear face masks so the hearing-impaired can communicate while protected.
*The recent "One World: Together at Home" concert in the U.S. that raised $127.9 million for WHO's COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.
*The factory in Kenya that - overnight - transformed from making gardening clothes to assembling 30,000 surgical masks a day. Josephine Wambua, 24, who never attended school, voices what this change symbolizes for her and her factory co-workers: "To sit here and do something that is useful to the world is a dream. I never thought I would be part of something that has the potential of saving millions from dying."
You, O God, are the one who gives us life, and gives it abundantly.
You have entrusted us with this your world, and with one another.
O God, we pray you, save our lives.
Even now, we shall trust. Amen.
Adapted from Praying with Psalm 116, World News This Week in Prayer, April 24, 2020