This past week, my wife and I visited friends who live in a small mountain town rich in spruce, maple, and poplar forests, along with a stunning lake nearby. One morning, I stepped outside and sat on their balcony, this too adorned with beautiful pots of flowers and other colourful seasonal blossoms. The sun had not yet come out, and as I listened to birds chirping in the trees just a stone’s throw away and a small stream trickling through the woods below, I felt calm and relaxed as I enjoyed the morning ambience.
In just a few minutes, the sun broke through a layer of clouds and instantly bathed everything in a lovely glow of backlight, its warming rays lighting up a pot of petunias and rimming each bloom to reveal the fine hairs on the stem and at the base of each burgundy flower. Being a lover of photography, I grabbed my phone to snap a handful of close-ups while rejoicing in the moment and another day of life by God’s grace, mercy, and provision.
You might be familiar with a song called; This is the Day the Lord Hath Made. I grew up singing this song in Sunday School and in church, and I always, even to this day, feel gratitude in my heart to God for blessing me with life and all the wonderful things in it whenever I hear those lyrics.
This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalms 118:24 (ESV)
In context, this verse talks about Jesus becoming our salvation, the stone that the builders rejected who has become our cornerstone. Verse 23 says, “This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.” As I sat on that balcony and reveled in the visual and audible beauty around me, I felt encouraged to take a moment and thank God for my life, regardless of any circumstances that make me feel sad, worried, or uncertain about tomorrow.
Psalms 118:24 (NIV) is slightly different but still refers to the truth that our salvation is a gift through Jesus’s shed blood and glorious resurrection—that we are saved by grace through faith when we ask the Lord into our hearts and lives: “The Lord has done it this very day; let us rejoice today and be glad.” (NIV)
I understand how busy and stressful and problematic our lives can become and that it is not always easy to be grateful when things around us feel like our feet are in sinking sand. Right now, I am facing uncharted territory, but God reminds me/us to appreciate each day and to trust Him through every situation and to develop a grateful heart in all things, despite our circumstances.
I would like to encourage you, my friend, to develop an attitude of gratitude and to not only thank God for the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, but to look around you and thank Him for His blessings, even for something as small as a flower that might be in your direct line of sight.
Paul Smyth
