New Mercies Each Morning
When the first snowflakes of the year danced across the gray December sky and settled with a whisper on brittle brown, she stood wonderstruck at the window.
She clasped her pudgy pink hands together in an unplanned prayer of praise and laughed out loud at the sheer gift of it all.
I laughed, too, giddy with the unexpected invasion of joy that had settled upon our ordinary day in the shape of waltzing crystals, iridescent icicles, and powdered-sugar tree branches. I was the one who had been dreading this transformation since October’s days had grown short. I was the one who had been silently mourning the relinquishing of autumn’s gold for winter’s white. But her delight was contagious. And her eyes opened mine.
I bundled her in puffy pink, and we tiptoed across the yard made new. Her steps sunk and crunched, adding soft percussion to the melody of wind and sky.
She touched and tasted. Scooped and patted. Licked chilled white fluff with curious tongue. She giggled as snowflakes melted in her mouth; then clapped her mittened hands together in a rhythmic thump of appreciation.
And I laughed with my littlest one for the second time that day, grateful for her unbridled joy, humbled by the unplanned picture of grace in my front yard.
Surely this is the joy of our salvation–to wake each day to a fresh canvas of hope and scoop with gratitude new mercies falling wordlessly from Heaven’s skies.
The Overflow: The faithful love of the LORD never ends!
His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness;
his mercies begin afresh each morning. -Lamentations 3:22-23
