This week's Theme: The Best Things in Life
Day 1: Dry Wells
For a few days the smell of smoke hung in the air, noticeable, lingering mostly in the background. But over the next few days, a deep, stifling haze crept over everything—acrid, cloying, stifling.
Record-setting wildfires raging over more than 44 million acres of Canadian territory quickly became a major concern as air quality quickly plummeted in several areas of not just Canada, but also the United States, and even other areas of the world.
For several days, I, and others in the affected areas struggled to breathe through an increasing haze of orange, red, purple, and finally maroon—the measurement that denoted the most hazardous air quality on the Air Quality Index (AQI). I followed the advisories that recommended wearing masks and staying indoors, but I still struggled terribly as the haze lodged in relentless determination over “the world.”
I had never realized before how much I had taken air for granted! Day in, day out, all my life, I had breathed in the air that sustains my life and all life around me, without serious contemplation of this great gift.
Yes, I often thank God for life, but not necessarily with the serious, specific, intentional focus on what constitutes life—the fact that the breath of the Almighty gives me life (Job 33:4). The old proverb couldn’t be truer: You never miss the water till the well runs dry!
My mother often sang a song that I cannot find anywhere, but some of the lyrics were something along the lines:
God sends the sunshine, He sends the rain, the best things in life are free!
So many of God’s gifts surround us—unassumingly compelling, unobtrusively powerful, silently expressive. Indeed, the best things in life are free. Dare we take them for granted?
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