Every Ordinary Day

Thank you, Lord, for the gift of every ordinary day.

Every ordinary day is the evidence of Your gift of life to every creature of earth and sea. Thank you for the treasure of life and time with those we love and with those who love us.

With Your expressed permission, we live in a very small, distant corner of Your creation at exactly the perfect – “Goldilocks” – distance from “our” sun. Here we live on a little speck of rock and water and air, a little planet, the one we call Earth, that is our world.

With Your expressed permission, the heartbeat of a human being begins about 21 days after conception, and then thereafter, the human heart beats more than 2.8 billion times in an average human lifetime, every ordinary day.

We are grateful for Your generous gift of our steadily beating hearts, every ordinary day. With every breath, You take the air out of us, and give it back again, every ordinary day.

You are constantly teaching us to trust You, to learn from You, to love You in the good times, and in the difficult times, of every ordinary day.

You give us just enough patience not to look beyond each ordinary day in search of some special and perfect tomorrow. We are overjoyed and profoundly grateful just to “be” in every ordinary day.

Every ordinary day is a thread of time woven into the tapestry of our lives. In every one of our ordinary days, You share with us the wonders of Your creation.

You bless us with Your gifts of loving kindness . . . breathing, seeing, hearing, feeling, thinking, speaking, writing, touching, tasting, laughing, loving and being loved.

You generously share Your spectacular gifts with each of us in this splendid experience we call “Life.” There is no word in any of the languages of Earth that is big enough to say “thank you” for so great a gift.

To merely say “thank you” is way too small an expression of awe to contain the majesty and power and commanding presence of every ordinary day.

When truly amazing things happen around us, especially on those ordinary days when we are suddenly way over our heads in harm’s way, we are especially aware of Your presence.

In those moments, we cannot help but know, for sure . . . its You. Its always You.

You catch us from behind. You search our hearts. You surprise us with unexpected blessings that touch us deeply with Your profound generosity . . . every ordinary day.

You show us the way to live an honorable life. Without You, we could not do it on our own.

You give us just enough sense, just enough wisdom, just enough grace, to give back to You the gift of our living in grateful appreciation for Your gift of Life, every ordinary day.

Every ordinary day is a treasure. Soon enough, with Your expressed permission, we will pass from time into eternity on our very last ordinary day.

In Your wisdom, You have designed the reliable rhythm of our breathing, and the faithful beating of our hearts to occur in pairs, except for that very last time, on our very last day.

In that moment, You allow us one last breath, one last heartbeat. The others You keep . . . the ones that bring us home to You.

On that ordinary day, You will have completed Your purpose for each of us on this Earth.

When we die, we won’t be dead. You will change our world instead.

With Your permission, Sir, thank You for teaching us to be ready for our next assignment.

In Jesus’ name, amen.