Hymn of Thanking: “Great Is Your Faithfulness” or “Now Thank We All Our God”

Hymn of Reflecting (Sung during card collection): “How Deep the Silence of the Soul,” “We Yearn, O Christ, For Wholeness,” or “I Would Be True”

Leader: By naming, we acknowledge and honor these tools. Hear now those that bring light into our lives. (Readers read several cards with pauses as acolytes place a candle for each on table and light it. Work from center outward leaving room for cards. When naming is finished, readers place cards on table.)

People: No tool is too small or costly that draws its user into fuller life.

Leader: These gifts symbolize that all people are acceptable and meant to live.

People: When spirits soar with new possibility, God, a surge of energy swooshes like an eagle entering flight.

Leader: Let those bringing tools come for blessing. (Speak as leader places hands on each tool and person:)

Leader: Bless this life-giving tool and the one who uses it.

All: Thank you, God, for wholeness of being. Amen.

Hymn of Launching: “Help Us Accept Each Other” or “Called As Partners In Christ’s Service”

Prayer: Gracious God, in holy partnership with your hope, let us continue to open doors in our lives and in this place with whatever helps answer challenge and life-change with hope. When shortness of funds, courage or tenacity causes stumbling, remind us of networking and shared effort. When tangled mats of impossibility exhaust our spirit, refresh the vigor of our resourcefulness. Through Christ. Amen.

Reading the Signs columns, written or edited by db, are reprinted with permission from the Nebraska Conference Nebraska Record and are to be used freely.