Birth is an elusive mystery: an everyday occurrence in nature and rural life that is nonetheless marvelous to behold. Its wonder and splendor are fresh with each new entrance into creation. At the appointed time, a universal labor of intense energy opens the womb of Nature’s gateway and ushers into the world an innocence and hope that is always a gift.
In a moment of revelation, we are privileged to witness and perhaps assist the birth of the latest member of our renewing world. Hand in hand with the Creator, we grasp the rhythm of new life, new breath and new hope.
In the spirit of this month’s blessing, consider preparing a simple meal on the day of the blessing. Gather with family or friends in the early evening. Light a new candle. After a moment of silence, begin this service:
Opening Prayer
Let us pray: Lord of life and birth, you enter our lives through gentle messengers, infants of earth with greetings from heaven. May your unending array of hope and promise never fail to move us with awesome wonder and tender love. Teach us to serve your creatures with gratefulness and marvel. Give us a sensitivity to the fragile web of creation and the wonder of the miracle of life. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Song of Praise: Verses from Psalm 139 (13-14, 15) and Psalm 71 (5-6)
Response: You knit me in my mother’s womb.
You formed my inmost being;
you knit me in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, because I am wonderfully made;
wonderful are your works!
Response: You knit me in my mother’s womb.
My very self you know.
My bones are not hidden from you,
When I was being made in secret,
fashioned in the depths of the earth.
Response: You knit me in my mother’s womb.
You are my hope, Lord;
my trust, GOD, from my youth.
On you I have depended since birth;
from my mother’s womb you are my strength;
my hope in you never wavers.
Response: You knit me in my mother’s womb.
Reading: Isaiah 45: 8, 12-13, 18
“Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down righteousness;
let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit;
let the earth cause them both to sprout; I the Lord have created it.”
For thus says the Lord, “I made the earth and created man on it;
it was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host.
I have stirred him up in righteousness, and I will make all his ways level;
he shall build my city and set my exiles free, not for price or reward,”
says the Lord of hosts.
For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens, who formed the earth and all its inhabitants:
“I am the Lord, and there is no other.”
Selective Readings from Scripture
Geneses 1:24
And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
Isaiah 43:18-19
Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
Isaiah 65:17-25
For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness.
Colossians 3:9-10
Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
John 3:3
Jesus answered and said unto him, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Reflection
(People may mention births that have occurred recently or are to happen soon, remembering the people and households involved.)
Closing Blessing
Creator God, bless the fresh-born creatures of our land. Oversee their needs with attentive care. Bear them into this life as the continuing newness of creation and your faithful cycle of promise and hope.
As you imbue them with the breath of life, breathe the freshness of your Spirit into our labored lungs.
And bless all mothers for their sacrifice of love in your creative partnership, to bring forth your love enfleshed in new life.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
To see other blessings, click here.
