Restored

Ezra 6:19-22

The Passover Celebrated

On the fourteenth day of the first month the returned exiles kept the passover. For both the priests and the Levites had purified themselves; all of them were clean. So they killed the passover lamb for all the returned exiles, for their fellow priests, and for themselves. It was eaten by the people of Israel who had returned from exile, and also by all who had joined them and separated themselves from the pollutions of the nations of the land to worship the Lord, the God of Israel. With joy they celebrated the festival of unleavened bread seven days; for the Lord had made them joyful, and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria to them, so that he aided them in the work on the house of God, the God of Israel.

Work done

Worship restored

Back to ritual and promise

A return to praise and devotion

With the evidence of their longing

manifest in the completion of the temple,

Gods people fell back on tradition 

Returning to what they knew or had heard about

Worshiping the Lord with joy

With the building as testament to an ancient way of life

they picked up old threads

and began to weave

a new pattern.

Prayer

In every unraveling and in every re-making, God is with us.

In every truth discarded and in every treasure rediscovered, God is with us

Aiding discernment in the myriad options we encounter

Guiding our thoughts and deeds

Directing our choices

Leading us

in the ways that lead

to hope

and peace

and love

and joy