how GREAT thou art!

(photo credit Ellen Wilts)

Today is Friday. Normally I love Fridays as it is the start of a new weekend, yet today I was a bit down. Capping off a hard week of work, I still had to care for two dogs as part of my daily routine and today, the alarm clock just seemed to call out to me a bit sooner than I would have liked.

I am caring for a neighbor's Bloodhound, those big dogs that are seen usually sleeping on a back porch on those TV shows from the sixties. As I yawned while walking up to her back door, I hooked her up and, taking a look at the morning sky, I was mesmerized. The clouds thinned just enough to allow some of the sunrise to shine through. Colors of lavender, orange, yellow, red and pink turned the sky into a wonderland of beauty. Several wood ducks flew overhead; a tree swallow sat on a power line twittering away and I immediately straightened up and took note of the beauty around me. As we walked, or shall I say, I walked, she shuffled and snuffled her way across the sidewalks, I began to appreciate the world around me.

The photo above was taken by a gal who has endured a house fire in just the last six weeks, losing many things that she held dear. NOT her family though, and for that, we ALL give thanks! But her "home" since then has been a hotel here in my small town on the prairie. The scene she has had to look at out her window is a parking lot that ends next to a corn field. Yet today of all days, she had this view to wake up to, a view so full of promise. When I think of her, all of my troubles disappear. I too, was in a house fire when I was just three years old, too young to really appreciate the serious magnitude of losing everything except the pajamas I was wearing and too young to also appreciate how close I was to losing my own life in it. I am not too feeble to understand, however, just how wonderful life can truly be and thus, when I see sunrises or sunsets, I am so very grateful for all that God has graced me with. It isn't material things. It's people and the chance to HUG them. It's sunrises and the ability to SEE them. It's the birds singing and the chance to HEAR them. It's lilacs and the ability to SMELL them. God has graced us with so many senses, to show us how wonderful being alive truly is!

Yes, it may be just another Friday, with yet more cool rain in the forecast but for right now, this moment, I was lost in the grandeur that God had provided for me.
And I smiled and gave thanks to Him for the moment He gave to me and all who were up this early in the day! How great thou art, indeed!

May you also be blessed by such moments of grace!

click this link below to hear Carrie Underwood sing "How Great Thou Art"

How Great Thou Art