Whew. Been a while, hasn't it?
I wish I could say I've been busy inventing the cure to cancer...or traveling around the world with my family...or at least cleaning out every bit of the clutter in our home and giving it all away to folks who could use it (that would be my husband's idea of the greatest day ever. He's often told me the only thing he wants for his birthday is a huge black trash bag...filled with stuff we are giving away. Someday, honey, someday.)
But really, it's just been busy, daily life that has kept me hopping and doing who knows what. Lots of fun stuff like children coming home for the weekend, Parents' Weekend for our college-aged daughter, working on lectures for Bible study, an overnight visit with a couple of our children near Charlotte...and just the small, routine but happy duties of daily life: Helping with homework (thank You, Father, for the gift of a child still at home). Walking the dog on spectacular fall days (thank You, Father, for creating the glories of fall...and the joy of dogs). Eating at good old Cloos or Casa Carbone (thank You, Father, for food, glorious food...and for taste buds and for chocolate--always gotta thank You for that gift!). Doing the laundry (thank You, Father, for clean clothes to wear and for the people I love for whom I can wash them). Carpooling (thank You, Father, for a car that works and for places to go and for the astounding beauty of fall exploding all around us. It's like driving through an art museum filled with masterpieces).
Our neighbor's tree--glory happening right in front of our driveway!
Okay, I'll shut up. But the point? Our seemingly mundane, regular-old-nothing-big-going-on days are, in reality, filled with opportunities to love others, to savor life, and to worship our Lord. Oh my, how often we miss that in the hustle and bustle or the hum drum and routine. I don't ever want to grow calloused to the wonder of the everyday. Each day a new gift to be opened and lived to the glory of God. Oh Father, don't let us fail to open Your gift of this day. Don't let us miss You in the midst of every single moment of this day.
I love how good old C.S. Lewis describes those simple, "routine," but glory-infused moments--as "pleasant inns" along our journey of life. He sends those pleasant inns to refresh us along the way. Just in case you'd like to read it, here are Lewis' words--
"The Christian doctrine of suffering explains, I believe, a very curious fact about the world we live in. The settled happiness and security which we all desire, God withholds from us by the very nature of the world: but joy, pleasure, and merriment, He has scattered broadcast. We are never safe, but we have plenty of fun, and some ecstasy. It is not hard to see why. The security we crave would teach us to rest our hearts in this world and oppose an obstacle to our return to God: a few moments of happy love, a landscape, a symphony, a merry meeting with our friends, a bathe or a football match, have no such tendency. Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home."
Oh how grateful I am for every one of those inns. Don't let us miss them, Lord. Open our eyes and hearts to see You and to savor the inns...and at the same time, to anticipate with great joy that the best is yet to come!
To God be the glory.
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