Thanks to God, the Bodymaker

Blessed are you, O God, Bodymaker.

You formed our bodies, you breathe into
them each moment your breath of life, and you sustain them with food.

Praised be you for our bodies, praised be you for our breath, praised be you for
our food.

Give us today enough for our needs, give us today enough to
share, and give us today the willingness and desire to use our bodies for your
service. AMEN

This prayer begins in the traditional Hebrew manner with a blessing of God. The epithet for God that I chose, “Bodymaker,” recognizes God as the good source of our bodies, which our dualistic leanings sometimes cause us to look down upon. We fear that flesh is evil, rather than the good gift that God has created. We wrongly look at our bodies as only vessels for carrying around the “important” part of us, our spirit and our soul. But God has created all three as a unity, and the body is not to be despised, it is to be honored with the other components of our beings. Our bodies are part of our praise for the Creating God, and God cares for them with tenderness.