The gift of a new day
This is the day the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it. (verse 24)
You never know what’s in store for you each day, do you. You may have got up ‘on the wrong side of the bed’. There may have been some event ahead of you that you were not looking forward to at all.
One Christian told of how he faced each day. No matter what lay ahead, he would say to himself, ‘I’m planning to enjoy it’. Each new day he saw as a gift from God’s gracious hand. He was determined, no matter what, ‘to rejoice and be glad in it’. He could thankfully accept whatever came his way, because ‘the Lord is good; his love endures forever’. His mercies are ‘new every morning’ (Lamentations 3:23).
On the first Palm Sunday, that was how the children welcomed Jesus as he entered Jerusalem on the donkey. Like children the world over when they’re excited by a special visitor, their joy bubbled over: ‘Hosanna to the Son of David’ (Matthew 21:15). May our hearts bubble over as we welcome him who comes in the name of the Lord (Psalm 118:26).
Heavenly Father, I thank you that your Son wasn’t above riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. Give me a happy childlike faith in him. Amen.
by Greg Lockwood, in ‘Time Out a word from God’ (LCA, Openbook, 2008)
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