Our opening prayer from morning worship at The Campfire Church today (by Grace Garner)

 God, you are alive in the wilderness

And your still, small voice speaks so closely to anyone who will listen.

In our wilderness of uncertainty, loneliness, disease and chaos,

We, like Abraham, find you already here.

In this moment, we build our altar to you,

Marking this space where we encounter you

And declare that God is great

That God is with us

And God is beyond us.

We behold the mystery of you.

Jesus, you walked in the wilderness.

God spoke to you and you came out here alone.

You lived with hunger and emptiness, and difficult choices.

You asked the difficult questions

And came to a point of understanding.

You came back changed, and ready.

When we walk through the wilderness, we face challenges and choices,

And we know we are changing too.

In places we thought no one else had been,

We find your footsteps

And we follow.

Spirit, you carry the wilderness in your heart.

You have loved and nurtured it since the first moments

When you hovered over the face of the water.

You tend the cauldron and you hold the crucible,

And from them you draw nourishment and beauty.

We invite you into our hearts

And make a home for the wilderness within us;

And make the wilderness without us a place of promise,

A place of creative power,

A place of nurturing and love.

We thank you, Gracious God, for the wilderness, as we begin our Lenten journey of making ourselves ready for the time of struggle and renewal that we know is over the horizon. We lift up our prayers and praise to you this morning, in the name of your son, Jesus Christ. Amen.