Each day is a gift

I awoke this morning a little before five o’clock.It wasn’t time to get up yet so I just laid there for a bit waiting for sleep to return.All at once one little bird began to chirp quietly outside in the trees.

In just a matter of a few seconds, some of his friends started to softly join him, as if they knew not to be too loud.Verycalmlythey began to sing out a peaceful good morning one or two chirps at a time.

A few minutes later their chorus of chirps was substantially louder and the sky began to show shades of gray way off on the eastern horizon.

As I lay there thinking about God’s great creation, I thanked Him for another day of life, and then dozed back to sleep for a few more minutes before

I awoke the second time.This time the birds were loudly singing out in greater numbers. I knew it was time to get up and get started with the day.

When I was a herdsman on our dairy farm as a young man, I used to watch the sun come up every morning at about the half way pointof the milking.

Our barn was a double widestyle construction with 48 cows in two rows on one side and forty-eight more on the other side.

When we got to the end of the first aisle, there was a big sliding barn door facing east, and we would walk over and stand in the doorway for a few seconds and breathe deeply of the beauty of each morning.

We couldn’t stand there for too long because the cows would finish giving their milk, and the milking machines needed to be moved around the corner and up the next isle.I miss the beauty of seeing the sun rise each and every morning.

Now in order for me to see a sunrise, I have to get up and take a walk to the other side of the trees so I can see the eastern sky.It’s a give and take though, because those trees are where the birds nest so I trade seeing the sunrise for hearing the birds sing each morning.

The evening is another story however, as the western sky is in full view, and we are blessed with many glorious sunsets.All we have to do is look out the window across the field to get a full view.

I am amazed that each and every day God gives us a live picture in the sky to marvel at.Sometimes the evening sky is ablaze with colors of red and orange, which usually means the weather is going to be nice the next day, right?

“Red sky at night, sailors delight” and “Red sky in morning, sailors take warning.” It’s funny how that little saying has been pretty accurate over the years.

Other times the sky is more subtle with shades of pink, blue and purple.Anyway God always gives us some beauty in the heavens to look at each day; the only problem is sometimes we’re not looking.

Psalm 19:1-4 reads; The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.

Romans 1:20 also reads; For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

The Lord wants to bless us with beauty, but also to get our attention to believe His word for salvation through His son, Jesus Christ, and then to live for Him in that incredible knowledge.It is my prayer that many will look to Him today and believe.

Until next week, God bless!