Made New Every Morning

I’m a morning person. What’s a morning person? It’s someone who is pretty much useless after 9:00 at night. That’s me. But I love getting up early as soon as the sun rises and brightens my room to feel the freshness of the morning air and listen to the birds sing outside my window. They always seem to be happy to be alive.

There is a big bay window in the room where my husband and I sit and watch TV. I enjoy looking out of it any time of year. This particular morning I marveled at how green everything appeared. It seemed only a short time ago that I was watching multi-colored leaves fall to the ground one by one.

We live in Tennessee where we experience all four seasons and, thankfully, winter is short. The last of the leaves are usually gone from the maple and oak trees by the end of November. Except for a winter storm or two, we normally have a fairly mild winter before the buttercups start to show the first signs of spring by popping up sometime in late February. Soon after, all the trees in the area start to bud, the grass turns green, and colorful spring blooms appear on the dogwoods and fruit trees. I’m always thankful that we only have three months of barren trees and brown grass.

Young girl playing ring around the rosie in a park with green grass, green trees and white blossoms — Photo by Elina Fairytale on Pexels.com

Spiritual renewal

The trees get to sleep and rest for three months, and then God renews them by bringing them back to life again where they go to work to produce their beautiful green leaves that provide a beautiful landscape and shade for the hot summer months.

The Lord renews the trees once a year, but our lives are renewed daily!

We know this because the Bible tells us in Corinthians:

Therefore we don’t faint, but though our outward person is decaying, yet our inward person is renewed day by day.

2 Corinthians 4:16

We each experience a slow decaying of our physical bodies as we age. Our looks change over time. Our skin gets wrinkled, our hair thins or turns grey, our bodies change shape and we begin to have less energy. We can slow down this process by eating healthy, exercising, and taking care of our bodies medically, but inevitably the end will come.

No death

But have you noticed that you still feel the same on the inside as you did as a child? That’s because your spirit is renewed every morning!

Our spirit never dies! No matter how our physical body changes, our spirit remains constant. As we age, we are looked at differently, people treat us differently, and we even act differently, but our spirit is always the same because it is eternal! Our inward man feels the same as when we were 10-year-old children. And we don’t have to do anything to make this happen. God does it for us.

Everything in our world is always in need of repair. We paint a deck and in a year or two, we have to do it all over again. We clean our house and it just gets dirty again. We get our hair colored or trimmed and our nails manicured and we have to go back month after month for the same thing. A big portion of our life is spent just keeping everything up. But not so with our spirits. We don’t have to do a thing to keep that part of our being in tip-top shape!

As Christians, this should bring us much comfort. Yes, our earthly bodies will one day die, but we don’t have to fear death because “To be absent from the body is to be home with the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5:8)

This is the hope and assurance of everyone who has made Jesus the Lord of their life. Every morning when you awaken, give thanks to God not only for the chance to live another day in your earthly body; but also that your eternal spirit has been renewed once again and you’re one day closer to your heavenly home.

In my Father’s house are many homes. If it weren’t so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you.
John 14:2

Beautiful blue sky with the sun shining through creating a pink and yellow color in the sky. — Photo by Rahul Pandit on Pexels.com

Not Why but What ? – The Coronavirus question we should all be asking

I felt such an unexplainable peace sitting in the silence of my home while at work and looking out on my back deck where the rain was slowly drizzling down. I noticed the empty patio chairs and table and my mind goes back to the time last spring when my family was reclining in those chairs, my children and their spouses each eating dessert and drinking coffee, laughing, talking and enjoying each other’s company. The grandchildren were playing in the yard. I can see them all there and my heart years to go back to that day and to experience that again.

Everything seems so peaceful with the drizzling rain against the newly budded green trees. A robin occasionally comes and perches in the deck and a squirrel scurries around in the trees. It’s as if nature doesn’t know the silent war that’s going on in the world. Did someone forget to tell spring? Why are the trees budding and turning green the way they do every year?

Of course nature knows. God controls the seasons and He decided that spring should come this year anyway. Perhaps to tell us that the world isn’t ending just yet.

We’re in the third week of isolation because of the Coronavirus pandemic and while I’m enjoying a bit of a slowdown and working from home, I’m starting to miss my loved ones and their hugs and the simple things like getting in the car and going where I’d like to go and doing what I want to do.

Naturally, this pandemic didn’t catch God by surprise. He’s aware of those who are quarantined at home, those who have lost their jobs, those who are sick and especially the hurting and the dying.

Perhaps the question we should be asking God isn’t why is this happening, but what do you want me to learn from this? Have you forced the entire world into this isolation and slowdown for a much needed rest? Is this just a way to somehow cleanse the earth and decrease pollution? Are you wanting families to connect more? Or are you longing for the world to turn back to you?

I can’t pretend to know what God is thinking, but what I can do is ask Him what He wants me to do during this time and what does He want me to learn. Whether it’s being isolated at home or working on the front lines in our hospitals combating the virus head on God has put us each in this place.

I love these words from the late Zig Ziglar. “Expect the best. Plan for the worst. Capitalize on what comes.” I don’t believe he’s talking about capitalizing with money here, but rather maximizing the most of the opportunities we are presented with, even though we may not initially view them as positive.

What have you been given during this time that is unique? Is it time with family like never before, more time to reflect, to read, exercise, pursue that hobby or deepen your relationship with the Lord? Glean from it whatever you can and learn it’s lessons for this too shall one day pass.

Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.

Psalm 46:10

Inevitable Change

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Embrace change! We’re encouraged to do this in today’s fast-paced, ever developing, technology driven society. If we don’t change and continually learn, we will be left behind and eventually get to the point where it is hard to even function.

While God remains the same, His world is always changing. Each rotation of the earth around the sun brings a host of distinct challenges, opportunities, blessings, joys, trials, and sorrows. Every day people are born into life here and every day some leave. Plants appear in the spring and then begin to die out in the fall as the trees go bare, only to be replaced by new buds the next spring. Most animals appear for just a few short years before they die and are replaced by their offspring.

A few decades ago, most of the people we care about and spend most of our time with today didn’t even exist. A couple of decades in the future and our family will look totally different than it does today.

Remember when we were very young we though we will be on this earth for what seemed like an eternity. Then suddenly in early adult hood the stark reality hit us that life is going by much faster than we ever imagined.

With each passing day we become a little different. We are a little older, a little fatter or skinnier, depending on what we ate, a little wiser or dumber, depending on what we allowed into our minds. A little richer or poorer depending on what economic decisions, good fortune or trouble we happened to experience that day.

No two days will ever be the same and neither will we be the same tomorrow as we are today. Therefore, embrace change and embrace this day. In a way It will be our last for there will never be another one exactly like it. Besides, it’s the only one we are guaranteed to have!

This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24