Today!

"This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it." Ps. 118:24

Thank You Lord for Your Word which encourages and convicts and instructs. This is the day...today, the only today I will ever have in this life. The only "today" that God has given me--and it is a gift: a priceless, irreplaceable, once-in-a-lifetime gift that God has bestowed upon His children. Will we choose to rejoice in all that this day brings? Will we live this single day with gladness for the privilege of breathing and walking and eating and laughing and singing another day? Will we choose to rejoice in all the myriad blessings He bestows upon us--our children, our spouses, our homes, our food, our health, our safety, our bodies, our ears and eyes and mouths, our friends? How about the joy of God's eternal, supernatural Word that lights our paths and lightens our burdens? Will we rejoice that He has given us another day to serve Him, to praise Him, to make His Name great? Will our hearts be glad today in that beautiful crimson cardinal or that dear friend's encouraging words or that piece of chocolate or that strain of music or that hug or that swelling of emotion that tells us we are alive?

That laundry that seemed so overwhelming to me this morning, now seems precious for it represents the dearest of lives God has so extravagantly given to me. And I thank Him that I have the strength to lift the basket and the nose to smell the fresh, clean scent of the clean clothes. This busy day that I began weighted down with anxiety and exhaustion, I now see as a gift from His hand for it was filled with people I love and places I am thankful to be able to go to and see.

So Lord, thank You for this most precious of days--as has been said so often: today is a gift--no wonder they call it the present. So if this is my last day, may it be said I rejoiced in this day, in it's people and places and purposes. And if, in the grace of God, He gives me another day, might I rejoice anew in the opportunity to see Him at work and in giving Him glory and in knowing Him just a little bit better than the day before. To God be the glory.