“This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24
Sometimes the most familiar verses of scripture are the ones we forget to pay close attention to. I was reminded of this verse when I was preparing for a presentation and decided to take it to heart and take it into my sunrises and sunsets.
How did I do that? Well, I also came across two rarely used words anymore. Serendipity and Eventide.
Serendipity’s definition is simple: Finding something good without looking for it.
Or I love how Chuck Swindoll, Pastor and Author explains it:
“Serendipity occurs when something beautiful breaks into the monotonous and the mundane. A serendipitous life is marked by “surprisability” and spontaneity. When we lose our capacity for either, we settle into life’s ruts. We expect little, and we’re seldom disappointed.”
We have a young neighbor boy who loves frogs. He lives in that serendipitous world of rejoicing in finding a frog when he is not looking. His eyes light up, he bounces up and down and joy is all over him. What a delight to witness that! I don’t even like frogs and I get excited!
Eventide is even more unfamiliar to us, but oh how rich of a word when we envision its meaning.
Eventide: The most perfect part of the day is eventide, as the sun sinks below a heavy horizon.
We live in a neighborhood full of houses. But out our back door is an empty lot that no one has built on. What a delight in the evening to look up and out at the sky and catch the painting that God has created for that day. It really doesn’t get much better than that no matter where you are.
So, before an expectedly busy day begins, look to this instruction from the psalmist and plan to rejoice in the day “that the Lord has made” for YOU.
Step into your day knowing that God has good things in store to surprise you with. Live in a “surprisability” mode and see what gets you out of that rut of the expected mundane. See what God surprises you with that puts joy on your face and maybe even makes you bounce up and down.
And then the best part. At the end of the day, before your feet leave the ground for another night’s sleep, look to the heavens and see the sky in a new light. At Eventide. You may not be able to see the sun sink into the horizon but the sky is painted each night at sunset for us to enjoy. By our creative God who loves us.
I have been practicing all three of these things recently and I can tell you on even the most routine, maybe even not so good days, God shows up to help me rejoice, gives me a surprise, and settles my mind at sunset knowing that this truly has been a day that “the Lord has made” for ME!
Dear ministry partners…don’t let the mundane or the busy or the routine get in the way of rejoicing in the day that the Lord “Has made for YOU”!
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