Thursday, October 5, 2023
Remember the days of wildfire smoke that turned the sun orange?
Even then we stilled breathed!
And survived.
Joshua 21:45
Not one of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.
Luke 13:17
When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.
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Words of Grace For Today
I’m not so sure that all that God has promised has come to pass. There are many words of condemnation, promising the demise of all God’s people, which may have come to pass, but certainly not all of them, as God has relented and rescued God’s people, again and again, from the folly that we get ourselves into at the hands of our opponents.
Jesus, on the other hand, put his opponents to shame, with all the great works that he does.
Even this day, the wonders continue:
The air is breathable, free from smoke.
The water is drinkable, processed by systems designed by people building on the wonders of science and technology of this and previous generations.
The food is edible. Or sort of, maybe. Some of it in the grocery stores makes one question whether a huge source of cancer is not all the processed food we eat, with all the poisons in the packaging, and all the poisons that are on and in the food grown and sold … and eaten by so many people, us included.
But we do not go hungry. We just suffer all sorts of weird illnesses and diseases and decays of life. Of course the wealthy have ways of getting food that is less poison-laden, and us poor are left with no choice but to take what no one else wants. But at least we eat, right?
That is the promise that God has kept for us, that we will eat.
The shame is ours when we forget how blessed even our lives in poverty are.
Even moreso when we do not realize how others struggle to survive on so much less. Our poverty would be a dream come true for them!
So we practice this day giving thanks again:
Thank you God for all that keeps us alive!