Here are our hands, O God, Gardener ever ancient, ever new.
Here are our hands. Give them the skills to coax along the natural forces of life and growth that you have already written into creation, and to help wisely with the harvest.
Here are our hands and here are our dreams and our faith in the promise of your abundant garden.
We will prepare the soil, plant, water, and weed, but only helpers we shall be. It is the seed that grows, the earth and sun that urge it on, and you, Divine gardener who give it its purpose and draw it toward its fulfillment,
Take these hands, then, and put them to use, so that in the process of gardening we ourselves may blossom anew. Amen.
Adapted from The Lively Garden Prayer Book by William Cleary