Good to Give Thanks

"It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
to sing praise to your name, O Most High;
to declare your steadfast love in the morning,
and your faithfulness by night,
to the music of the lute and the harp,
to the melody of the lyre.
For you, O Lord, have made me glad by your work;
at the works of your hands I sing for joy." (Ps 92: 1-4)

The Easter season coincides in the Northern Hemisphere with the coming of spring, with its longer, brighter, warmer days, with the burgeoning of plant life, when colors of pink, red, yellow and green paint with new vitality what our eyes have grown accustomed to in the bleak days of winter. The familiar takes on a new life.

These glorious days of Easter can be lost if we don't step back to take a good look at the "familiar" and see it in a new light. Raking up leaves and dead branches is a chore, no question, but it can help us savor what has been and what is to come. It can help us realize as well that we often treat those around us like a wintery yard of past debris and rubble. We can be haunted by the fantasy of the greener grass on the other side of the fence, and miss the beauty under our noses. Taking stock of what goodness God has given us in the simple things and the people who surround us, spending time to see them in "spring light" will fill us with the joyful realization that it is indeed "good to give thanks."
Bro. Rene