I came across this prayer last week in the course of preparing for Mother’s Day and wanted to share it with you. While the vivid example here is nappy changing, I think we could swap in any repetitive everyday action done for the love of others…

(I’ve changed ‘diaper’ to ‘nappy’ to Aussify the prayer)

Heavenly Father,

in such menial moments as this—

the changing of a nappy—

I would remember this truth:

My unseen labours are not lost,

for it is these repeated acts of small sacrifice that—

like bright, ragged patches—

are slowly being sewn into a quilt of

lovingkindness that swaddles this child.

…

I am not just changing a nappy.

By love and service

I am tending a budding heart that,

rooted early in such grace-filled devotion,

might one day be more readily inclined

to bow to your compassionate conviction—

knowing itself then as both a receptacle

and a reservoir of heavenly grace.

…

So take this unremarkable act of necessary

service, O Christ, and in your economy

let it be multiplied into

that greater outworking of worship and of faith,

a true investment in the incremental

advance of your kingdom across generations.

…

Open my eyes that I might see this act

for what it is from the fixed vantage of eternity, O Lord—

how the changing of a nappy might

sit upstream of the changing of a heart;

how the changing of a heart might

sit upstream of the changing of the world.  Amen.

From the book ‘every moment holy’   copyright © 2017 Douglas Mckelvey.

Love to you all, Miranda.  

Photo by Ignacio Campo on Unsplash