Today is a Gift

17 May Today is a Gift

Read Psalm 118

Thought for the Day: When I wake up, I see that today is a gift!

In all of literature and film, there is no greater ending than Ebeneezer Scrooge’s Christmas morning experience in A Christmas Carol. While Scrooge had previously lived his life trapped in a cycle of greed and bitterness, he awoke Christmas morning with a brand new appreciation, having learned that each day is a precious gift. But, what is most amazing is that Scrooge did not simply change his attitude one morning and revert to being his humbug self later. Instead, Scrooge embraced a change from within by learning to let go of what others thought. After all, “Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them…” Scrooge learned that some would never understand, but he could let their opinions go as long as he lived the right way each day.

The Psalmist wrote in Psalm 118 of the importance of seeing each day as a precious gift from God. He emphasized that “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Rather than seeing today as a day with problems, the Psalmist reminds us that today is a gift from God. In the Ancient World, it was easy to let empires, wars, and even plagues ruin the day. However, the Psalmist said that no matter what circumstances we face, we can always remember that God is on our side. It doesn’t matter what we face, we simply need to remember Who made today. Remembering that today is a precious gift given to us by God for us, we can learn to accept even the things that trouble us most.

We may wake up and wish that it was any other day. We may wake up and wish that we lived at another time or in another place. However, we can never fix our problems with geographical cures. And – the last we checked, none of us have a time machine anyway! Instead, let’s see that today is a special gift made by God and given directly to each of us. While we will never be able to change people, places, or things, we can always live as Scrooge learned to live: “He was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset.”

In Christ,

Pastor David