A Backpack Blessing

We want you to get off to a great start this school year, and as you go to school, we want you to know that your church loves you and will be praying for you.  So, we’d like to bless you and your backpacks, to help get you ready.  OK?

Alright, here we go.  Everybody take off your backpacks, turn toward the congregation, and hold them up real high.  Good!

Alright, now all you guys, raise your hands like this, and imagine all the love and hope in you pouring out onto our children.  Great.  Look how much they love you!  OK, here we go:

Gracious and loving God, we ask you to bless these backpacks.

Make them strong for their job of helping our kids to learn.  May their straps never break, their padding never give out, their zippers never jam....

May they never be forgotten in strange places; may the burdens in them be light; and may the bodies that bear them be strong, and growing, and whole, and blessed, ever blessed, by your love.

Protect and guide our teachers and janitors, administrators and aides as they seek to provide a space for learning and for growth. 

Provide comfort and reassurance to parents that even if their children are out of sight, the you have them close to you.  

In the name of the great Teacher at whose knee we are all students, Amen.

~Rev. Quinn Caldwell, in part.