This is the Day Excerpt from Psalm 118"This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."
Reflection by Christina Villa
Sometimes when I have trouble falling asleep, I go over the just-finished day in my head and count up all the good things that happened. Then I count up the bad things. It's like counting sheep, but less boring. Almost always when I do this, the good things outnumber the bad. Satisfied that as of today, at least, I'm ahead, I drift off to sleep.
One of the benefits of this is that it forces me to think hard about what I consider a "good thing." Some days, I can't find a single good thing without thoroughly recalling the day in detail. When I do that, I might come up with the great smile from the kid who bagged my groceries, or the fact that the dog only threw up once, or that the poll numbers of some politician I can't stand are down. So it's not all stop and smell the roses. And it's not waiting for things that seem worthy of the saintly word "rejoice." It's being glad for
whatever.
Days can become routine -- but not when you stop to look at each one of them and see how different they really are, in the small things. I used to wonder about this line from the Psalm: "This is the day that the Lord has made." Doesn't the Lord make
every day? Why single this one out? We don't have to be glad for every day just because God made it. God made it to give us things to be glad about. But it's up to us to recognize them.
Prayer"For the beauty of each hour, Of the day and of the night, Hill and vale, and tree and flower, Sun and moon and stars of light, Lord of all, to thee we raise
This our grateful hymn of praise."