A Prayer for Daily Bread and Open Hands

Father, you fed Ruth and Naomi through a field they did not own and a man they did not know. We thank you for the ordinary ways you provide for us, the work that pays, the food on the table, the people whose kindness reaches us before we ask.

Teach us to go to the field. When we do not know what to do, give us the sense to do the next plain thing and to trust you with what it turns out to be. Steer our steps as you steered hers.

And make us like Boaz. Give us eyes for the stranger at the edge of our lives. Let us not keep the law grudgingly but keep it with open hands, dropping more than we must and sharing more than is required. Bless those in our congregations and neighbourhoods who are gleaning this week, and let them find refuge under your wings, even if that refuge has to look like us. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.