scaraben
13-Apr-07, 18:50
Let us give thanks in ALL circumstances.
I awake to the incessant gabble of BBC Scotland that precedes the unwelcome pronouncement “Coming up now, the seven o’clock the news with Alison Cairnie” I roll over, pull the duvet over my head not wanting to hear, but I know the sleeping game is up, so I reluctantly push my body from the horizontal to the perpendicular. I sit there looking down at my slippers and run my hands through my hair before I head for the bathroom, wiping the sleep from my eyes, just then a random thought slices its way through my mind. What is it, I ask myself ? where have I heard it ? or perhaps read it ? ... I have a hunch its from a Psalm, or maybe a Hymn that we sang over the week-end. “THIS IS THE DAY THAT THE LORD HAS MADE, LET US REJOICE AND BE GLAD IN IT” (Psalm 118 v24 )
Ah well, I mumble amidst another yawn and stick my hand on the handle of the bathroom door, but hold on, the verse is not so easily dismissed; for it has somehow found a hollow of “fertile soil” in the valley of my mind, where it plants itself ! …………biding its time ! and so it was as I was half way through my shaving routine that it yielded its first fruits. Surely, I thought this doesn’t mean every single day ! I mean some days you are bound to feel low, a bit off colour perhaps, more especially if there’s not a lot to look forward to, like today for example…..well what is there to get excited or rejoice about today ? ……….not a lot to be sure !
Yet, my conscience reminds me……you are a Christian aren’t you ? … every single day you live, is a gift from God, you accept that don’t you ? of course I do ! Well He wants you to rejoice and be glad in it. I take the cloth and wipe the soap from my now smoother than smooth face, rinse the cloth and wash the razor.
Then another voice pipes up, sowing doubt in my mind , reminiscent of that line in Genesis which says “Ye shall not surely die”, but this time its : “Come off it Son, be realistic, what HAVE YOU to rejoice about?” You know you’re still dead tired, you’ve just cut your chin it won’t stop bleeding, you need your time to get to work, and today’s the day you’re working late. Crikey ! ( I thought ) I’m loosing the argument with myself now.
I dry my face, pull the plug, the water cascades down the plug hole and as it gives a final gurgle I hear my Wife pass the door on her way down stairs to make breakfast. “Ah well” ( I say to myself ) “ perhaps I DO have much to be thankful for and to rejoice about. As I stood there folding the towel I began to realise I should be counting my blessings and not lamenting my lot…………and so I resolved to look for things to rejoice about, things, that perhaps up to now, I had ashamedly thought of as rights I’d deserved, or worse still even, benefits that I had earned, rather than a demonstration of God’s love for me.
Thank you Lord for seeing us safely through the night, and for rest that brought renewed energy and refreshment to our weary bodies, enabling us to perform the tasks of another day. Thank you for a roof to cover our heads, a home that provides warmth, comfort and shelter and all other the things that make life sustainable for us both. Thank you Lord for and fresh air, running water to drink and to wash in, and thank you specially Lord for each another.
I pondered as I straightened the towel on the rail……..Oh aye, and thank you Lord for ears that let me listen to the radio, for eyes that steered me safely to the bathroom without injury to my toes, and for skin that keeps my inside dry even when I shower, yet lets me enjoy the prickles of water descending upon me alerting me to the fact that the water could be either too hot or too cold.
The Psalmist said “We are fearfully & wonderfully made, that my soul knoweth right well” I’m beginning to understand now Lord what he meant ! (see Psalm 139 ) As I pause and think about it, I most certainly am a creature of mind boggling complexity.
A comb now to the hair………or what’s left of it !! leaving the bathroom tidy and head for the kitchen and for breakfast. Oh Lord thank you for that incredible Woman who shares my life and who’s waiting for me to join her at the breakfast table. I know it was you who brought us together all those years ago, you knew that we needed one another. She it is, who gentled my rough edges over the years and made me what I am today. Thank you Lord for my dear wife.
I arrive at the kitchen door, there asleep still, lies Rhona, one eye opens, a little white tail gives a wag of recognition as I take my place. Before me a plate of freshly made porridge, there’s toast, marmalade and a pot of tea. What more could anyone wish for ?. Thank you Lord for the food that we receive at your hand each day, …… and the benediction rises in the steam ! Thank you for a nose to smell it, for a stomach that is always satisfied, for teeth to chew with, for my tongue and its taste buds, without which every meal would be reduced to tasteless nothingness, Lord you are so good to me !
Upstairs once more to add the final touches to my appearance, that I might look respectable before I hit the “world stage”. Thank you Lord for clean clothes, shoes without holes, for a walking stick to steady my now ungainly leg……….but now its time to walk the Dog. A reminder to thank you for her Lord, she’s such good company and when she’s at home she has a welcome for all who cross the threshold of the home. I gaze up the road, thank you Lord for the sky and the sun, the green trees, the birds and the warm breeze that fans my face, I can see your fingerprints on it all and thank you too for the folk that call a word of greeting to us as we take our morning constitutional.
An errand before lunch sends me on my way to the Post office. I choose the Sub Office above the harbour where I don’t expect a queue. My optimism melts like hard packed snow, and turns to slush as I find all is held up by a Woman at the head of the queue. She is insistent on telling the counter clerk how the plant she bought at the COOP failed to flower, following upon which she applauds the merits of the self adhesive stamps now on sale, with no thought for the people waiting to be served. “What is it with that woman” I ask myself ? The sun will still rise tomorrow whether her pot plant flowers or not and we all know the advantages of self adhesive stamps, seems to me her tongue would manage were they never introduced !
But…………………( a little voice inside reminds me )……….before all this hassle I was looking around for things to be thankful for, and my mind is distracted now from the woman at the head of the queue. OK…lets see what I can find here. Thank you Lord that I can send a letter anywhere in this country for less than the cost of a cup of tea. Thanks too, that I can say what I want without fear of it being censored and me thrown into prison. Oh, and I guess I should thank you Lord for this queue, which has afforded me the opportunity to mull things over while I wait, to smile and to chat to other people making their day and wait here that little bit more pleasant, and what of that old dear at the head of the queue Lord ? Perhaps she is lonely, perhaps she is living alone and longs for someone to chat to, in need of human contact. Help me to be more kindly to her , like you were when you walked this earth, that others may see some of your beauty shine through me.
Thank you Lord for this lesson in patience, thank you for your still small voice that reminds me that life does not always run to my agenda. Most of all I want to give thanks for my salvation that you won at great cost to yourself, just so I might inherit the free gift of eternal life. I promise to be content now Lord because I know that where I am going is far more important than where I am now stuck in this queue. Even though all the things that I am thankful for right now were to be lost, I can still rejoice and give thanks in all circumstances, for you have shown me a better way. Scaraben
I awake to the incessant gabble of BBC Scotland that precedes the unwelcome pronouncement “Coming up now, the seven o’clock the news with Alison Cairnie” I roll over, pull the duvet over my head not wanting to hear, but I know the sleeping game is up, so I reluctantly push my body from the horizontal to the perpendicular. I sit there looking down at my slippers and run my hands through my hair before I head for the bathroom, wiping the sleep from my eyes, just then a random thought slices its way through my mind. What is it, I ask myself ? where have I heard it ? or perhaps read it ? ... I have a hunch its from a Psalm, or maybe a Hymn that we sang over the week-end. “THIS IS THE DAY THAT THE LORD HAS MADE, LET US REJOICE AND BE GLAD IN IT” (Psalm 118 v24 )
Ah well, I mumble amidst another yawn and stick my hand on the handle of the bathroom door, but hold on, the verse is not so easily dismissed; for it has somehow found a hollow of “fertile soil” in the valley of my mind, where it plants itself ! …………biding its time ! and so it was as I was half way through my shaving routine that it yielded its first fruits. Surely, I thought this doesn’t mean every single day ! I mean some days you are bound to feel low, a bit off colour perhaps, more especially if there’s not a lot to look forward to, like today for example…..well what is there to get excited or rejoice about today ? ……….not a lot to be sure !
Yet, my conscience reminds me……you are a Christian aren’t you ? … every single day you live, is a gift from God, you accept that don’t you ? of course I do ! Well He wants you to rejoice and be glad in it. I take the cloth and wipe the soap from my now smoother than smooth face, rinse the cloth and wash the razor.
Then another voice pipes up, sowing doubt in my mind , reminiscent of that line in Genesis which says “Ye shall not surely die”, but this time its : “Come off it Son, be realistic, what HAVE YOU to rejoice about?” You know you’re still dead tired, you’ve just cut your chin it won’t stop bleeding, you need your time to get to work, and today’s the day you’re working late. Crikey ! ( I thought ) I’m loosing the argument with myself now.
I dry my face, pull the plug, the water cascades down the plug hole and as it gives a final gurgle I hear my Wife pass the door on her way down stairs to make breakfast. “Ah well” ( I say to myself ) “ perhaps I DO have much to be thankful for and to rejoice about. As I stood there folding the towel I began to realise I should be counting my blessings and not lamenting my lot…………and so I resolved to look for things to rejoice about, things, that perhaps up to now, I had ashamedly thought of as rights I’d deserved, or worse still even, benefits that I had earned, rather than a demonstration of God’s love for me.
Thank you Lord for seeing us safely through the night, and for rest that brought renewed energy and refreshment to our weary bodies, enabling us to perform the tasks of another day. Thank you for a roof to cover our heads, a home that provides warmth, comfort and shelter and all other the things that make life sustainable for us both. Thank you Lord for and fresh air, running water to drink and to wash in, and thank you specially Lord for each another.
I pondered as I straightened the towel on the rail……..Oh aye, and thank you Lord for ears that let me listen to the radio, for eyes that steered me safely to the bathroom without injury to my toes, and for skin that keeps my inside dry even when I shower, yet lets me enjoy the prickles of water descending upon me alerting me to the fact that the water could be either too hot or too cold.
The Psalmist said “We are fearfully & wonderfully made, that my soul knoweth right well” I’m beginning to understand now Lord what he meant ! (see Psalm 139 ) As I pause and think about it, I most certainly am a creature of mind boggling complexity.
A comb now to the hair………or what’s left of it !! leaving the bathroom tidy and head for the kitchen and for breakfast. Oh Lord thank you for that incredible Woman who shares my life and who’s waiting for me to join her at the breakfast table. I know it was you who brought us together all those years ago, you knew that we needed one another. She it is, who gentled my rough edges over the years and made me what I am today. Thank you Lord for my dear wife.
I arrive at the kitchen door, there asleep still, lies Rhona, one eye opens, a little white tail gives a wag of recognition as I take my place. Before me a plate of freshly made porridge, there’s toast, marmalade and a pot of tea. What more could anyone wish for ?. Thank you Lord for the food that we receive at your hand each day, …… and the benediction rises in the steam ! Thank you for a nose to smell it, for a stomach that is always satisfied, for teeth to chew with, for my tongue and its taste buds, without which every meal would be reduced to tasteless nothingness, Lord you are so good to me !
Upstairs once more to add the final touches to my appearance, that I might look respectable before I hit the “world stage”. Thank you Lord for clean clothes, shoes without holes, for a walking stick to steady my now ungainly leg……….but now its time to walk the Dog. A reminder to thank you for her Lord, she’s such good company and when she’s at home she has a welcome for all who cross the threshold of the home. I gaze up the road, thank you Lord for the sky and the sun, the green trees, the birds and the warm breeze that fans my face, I can see your fingerprints on it all and thank you too for the folk that call a word of greeting to us as we take our morning constitutional.
An errand before lunch sends me on my way to the Post office. I choose the Sub Office above the harbour where I don’t expect a queue. My optimism melts like hard packed snow, and turns to slush as I find all is held up by a Woman at the head of the queue. She is insistent on telling the counter clerk how the plant she bought at the COOP failed to flower, following upon which she applauds the merits of the self adhesive stamps now on sale, with no thought for the people waiting to be served. “What is it with that woman” I ask myself ? The sun will still rise tomorrow whether her pot plant flowers or not and we all know the advantages of self adhesive stamps, seems to me her tongue would manage were they never introduced !
But…………………( a little voice inside reminds me )……….before all this hassle I was looking around for things to be thankful for, and my mind is distracted now from the woman at the head of the queue. OK…lets see what I can find here. Thank you Lord that I can send a letter anywhere in this country for less than the cost of a cup of tea. Thanks too, that I can say what I want without fear of it being censored and me thrown into prison. Oh, and I guess I should thank you Lord for this queue, which has afforded me the opportunity to mull things over while I wait, to smile and to chat to other people making their day and wait here that little bit more pleasant, and what of that old dear at the head of the queue Lord ? Perhaps she is lonely, perhaps she is living alone and longs for someone to chat to, in need of human contact. Help me to be more kindly to her , like you were when you walked this earth, that others may see some of your beauty shine through me.
Thank you Lord for this lesson in patience, thank you for your still small voice that reminds me that life does not always run to my agenda. Most of all I want to give thanks for my salvation that you won at great cost to yourself, just so I might inherit the free gift of eternal life. I promise to be content now Lord because I know that where I am going is far more important than where I am now stuck in this queue. Even though all the things that I am thankful for right now were to be lost, I can still rejoice and give thanks in all circumstances, for you have shown me a better way. Scaraben