By Cindy Ehlke

Calvary Presbyterian Church

The other day I was standing at the gas station, pumping gas into my car. A friendly gentleman nodded to me from the other side of the pump. Just then another car pulled up. A woman in the car rolled down her window. These two people obviously knew one another.

The man said to her, “Hi, how are you?”

She replied “fine.” Then he asked, “is there anything new and exciting going on in your life?”

She replied “no, not much. Just the same old stuff.”

I have heard this kind of conversation many times before. In fact, I have answered in much the same way to these questions. But, for some reason, this time I began to ponder what my being a Christian might have to do with a different kind of answer. Then it came to me that every day is new and good. All kinds of things are happening if we consider the gift of faith and God’s mercy that fills every day.

Then a refrain from an old hymn started to run through my head: “Morning by morning new mercies I see. All I have needed Thy hand hath provided; great is they faithfulness, Lord unto me.”

This caught me off guard. Most of the time, I define an exciting day as one where there is a holiday, a birthday, a start of a vacation or, like we have all recently experienced, a really big storm. It seems my life has to be punctuated by these moments for it to be exciting. Often the routine parts of a day or the gloomy days of winter with gray clouds and rain would make me answer that there is nothing new to report.

Now that I have given serious consideration to what God does for me every day, I am able to say that every day has some exciting moments. In Lamentations 3:22-23 it says because of the lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. The wonders of nature, the changing seasons are a witness to God being present.

Even more significant is the life-changing event of salvation through Christ. I do not have to be bogged down with my shortcomings or feel I am not worthy of being noticed by God. God is present in all of my moments and in yours with an all encompassing love.

Recently someone said to me God is very near, all of the time. If God were any closer, we would trip over him. There is nothing mundane about this.