Great Is Thy Faithfulness/Groundhog Day

Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father, there is no shadow of turning with thee;
Thou changest not, thy compassions they fail not; as thou has been, thou forever wilt be.

Summer and winter and springtime and harvest; sun, moon and stars in their courses above; join with all nations in manifold witness; to thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth; thy own dear presence to cheer and to guide; strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow; blessings all mine with ten thousand beside.

Great is thy faithfulness, great is thy faithfulness; morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed thy hand hath provided; great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me!

This well known hymn makes me think of Groundhog Day. Have you ever seen that movie - with Bill Murray? Every day he wakes up and it's still February 2. If I remember correctly, he keeps re-living the day over and over and it's kind of a nightmare, actually, but also a chance to redeem and correct and to right yesterday's wrongs.

Well, to put that movie in the context of this great hymn, the way I interpret it is -- to put it bluntly, and not very theologically -- every day we get a do-over! Our kind and loving and beneficient Lord gives us a new chance every day to work out our salvation. Every day He lovingly gives us a sunrise and sounds of nature joyfully celebrating the dawn of a new day. Chirp! Chirp! Trilllllllllllllll-- tweet-tweet -- I love those sounds. Some days they sound like a melodious chorus, other days they sound like they're getting ready to fight a battle. And maybe within their own world they are, but nonetheless they too are getting a do-over. To sing their praises to God in a whole new way. Oh that we would be as joyful and as reckless as the birds in our praises to God each morning. Not to be carefree about it, but if you did not praise God sufficiently yesterday, then try again today with the merciful dawn of the new day!

If you did not exercise yesterday and instead ate bon-bons and sat in front of the TV, here is a new day! Here is that exercise machine you got for Christmas! It's still there! Try again!

If you did not feel encouraged yesterday by anything or anyone, try something new today - call someone and encourage them - and you will be blessed by that! You got a do-over if you woke up today!

Lest one think that I have gone new-age on them and worldly-spiritual, I say, no, look at the hymn and look at the Psalms - the praises, the mercy, the forgiveness of sins, the love of God, it is there, being renewed, every day. God is merciful and kind and has compassion on us and our slowness to truly understand. If we go to nature, we see that change takes time. It takes time for those little buds to grow. It takes time for a seed to turn into a beautiful plant or flower. Every day the strength of the plant gets renewed by the season of the day - the waking up, the stretching up and reaching toward the heaven to obtain the rays of the sun - the flagrant blossoms and glistening leaves - then the gentle bending downward as the day decrescendoes into sunset; and then the total genuflex and lying down as the night begs us to rest.

Prayer: Thank you Lord for letting every day be Groundhog Day. Help us not to relax into that rut of "oh well, tomorrow's another day" but rather to be grateful that Your promises are new every morning and they are fresh every morning and every moment of the day. This is so reassuring to me. Great is Thy faithfulness and .... How Great Thou Art. Amen.