A Happy Birthday

Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:
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.

Lamentations 3:21-23

This passage from Lamentations has been ringing in my head all week after celebrating Matthew’s 9th birthday last week. There are two lines in that text that resonate with me. One is that “God’s compassions never fail. They are new every morning.” And two, “great is your faithfulness.”

Last night Theresa and I were looking at video clips of Matthew opening up the birthday presents we gave him this year. The presents were not the newest video games, not an i pod, nor the newest fashionable sport shoes or clothing. After nearly a month of Matthew stashing puzzle pieces, puzzle boards and just about anything else important to him in our piano, we put together 3 large boxes of these items and gave them back to him all at one time. You would have thought by his reaction that we had given him the moon. It took him almost an hour to take every puzzle piece out of the boxes and examine each one. Hundreds of pieces that seemingly look  the same to you and I, each piece  had a story to tell to him, a memory attached to it. Some he tossed quickly aside, others he held on to and laughed with it, still others he took and jumped up and down with as if he hadn’t seen it in years. He knew each puzzle piece by name and even though he already “knew” it, he celebrated as if it was brand new. Isn’t that just like how God our Father greets us each new day? No matter how long we have been missing or gone doing our own thing he faithfully awaits our return and then rejoices when we finally walk through the door.

God is faithful. When we focus on him the trials and troubles are still there, but we are able to rise above them instead of being crushed beneath them.

Make tomorrow a new day, allow God to be faithful and open up a gift wrapped box. See what you may have been missing for days, months or maybe even years. Don’t feel like you need to empty the box all at once…pick a piece out one at a time and recall the story and the memory that is attached to it.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUTZ6zRdR3g]