This is the day the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad in it!

I woke up this morning to bright, beautiful sunshine and the birds singing ever so sweetly. I must confess, I don’t always think the birds sing so sweetly when I start hearing them sing about 5:00 in the morning. Sleeping “in” to 6:30 is a rare occasion between the roosters, birds, Kombi’s (vans that are taxi’s) beeping their horns in a language all their own and the sound of whatever it is that scampers across my corrugated iron roof every morning. (No, I don’t know what it is, and I’m not real sure I want to know.) But this morning, the beautiful sunshine and the birds were oh so sweet.

As I sipped my instant coffee while reading my morning devotional I was filled with the joy and peace of knowing that the Holy Spirit is always with us and that even though life or my moods aren’t always joyous, energetic and optimistic or even though I get so frustrated at not being able to connect with people because of the language barrier, that God is always in control, even in the most confusing or depressing times of my life. He brings a new beginning each day and some times from one moment to the next. He reminds me of that in so many ways. Today, he took pity on me and put it right in front of me so I would be sure not to miss it!

When I walked over to the early “English” church service, the lay speaker of the day actually did about 50% of it in English! For the first time I was able to understand when the Lord’s Prayer was being sung and understand when the Apostle’s Creed was recited. She said a corporate prayer in English praying for the people and government of Swaziland and the entire world. The scripture was Luke 18: 1-8, the parable of the persistent widow. Her message was to remind us to take all of our concerns, desires and needs to God in prayer. For once I could sing “AMEN” and mean it because I understood the jest of what was being said and because I have had so many first hand experiences of this in my life, let alone just the amount of time I have been in Swaziland.

So as Paul said to the Philippians: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: REJOICE!” (Philippians 4:4)

Make it a Christ filled day!