O Lord,
Exile is not the end.
You send the priest outside the camp,
to meet the one declared unclean.
Blood is shed, water is sprinkled,
a bird flies free,
and the outcast is welcomed home.
What mercy this is
that You make a way back for the broken,
that shame is not forever,
that uncleanness does not have the final word.
I confess, Father, that I have lived as though exile is permanent.
I have believed the lie that my shame defines me.
I have feared that once cast out,
I could never come back.
I let guilt chain me when You offer freedom.
I let despair speak louder than Your mercy.
Yet You are the God who restores.
You do not leave me outside the camp.
You come to meet me in my uncleanness.
You cleanse what I cannot cleanse.
You release what I thought would always be bound.
You take ashes and make them beauty,
You take the outcast and call them beloved.
So here I am, Lord.
Wash me clean again.
Sprinkle me with the blood of the Lamb,
bathe me in living water,
and send me out free as the bird that takes flight.
Restore my joy, renew my soul,
bring me fully home to Your presence.
Let my life bear witness to this truth:
that You make the unclean clean,
and the broken whole.
Amen.