The Longest Day of the Year

Most people have written great blogs about their 2009 and giving a summary of their year or their decade. Tonight, I am too tired to do either.  Today was so monumental, I can't begin to think about what happened in the past. We woke up at 3am to catch an early morning flight that saved us  about $150 per ticket.  Arriving home at 10am we discovered the cat was accidentally left inside the house for a week with no food and no kitty litter.  Yea, poor kitty. As we were bringing luggage out, he must have slinked back inside.

We also discovered if a dishwasher is left running so you can return to clean dishes, leaking water can warp your solid maple hardwood flooring and leak to the bedroom below.

So, today we spent a few hours and way too many dollars at the laundromat cleaning all the cushions and the cover from our one month old IKEA couch, cleaning carpeting, consoling and feeding the kitty, and trying to get that nasty smell of kitty urine out of our burning noses. My husband pried up a few floor boards and set a fan at work trying to prevent mildew damage in the kitchen.

Kelly-Across-the-Street saved the day by reading my Facebook status and inviting us over for a delicious meal of beef stew, squash, spinach salad, bread.  Her desert made everything better.  Brownies, with chunks of chocolate, topped with chocolate frosting. 

Maybe tomorrow I'll be ready to face the past year and the past decade.  For now, I have to just know that our family survived two traumas on very little sleep without yelling, fussing and blaming each other, but just quietly, tiredly, worked together.

That's reason enough to celebrate - the grace of our God and the God of all grace - through each day of the past decade, the past year and today, The Longest Day of the Year.

                            

We had a beautiful visual to begin our day, I think it set the tone for the day.

Lamentations 3:22-23 "It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed,

because His compassions fail not.

They are new every morning: great is His faithfulness."

As I peered above the clouds, as close to Heaven as I will ever get before death, I marveled in His creation, His power, His majesty.

When my heart was ready, we arrived home, ready to face The Longest Day of the Year, because, we were filled with new mercies.



Great is Thy Faithfulness
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 hast been Thou forever wilt be.

Chorus
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!

Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above,
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

(chorus)

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!

(chorus)


Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth.
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide,
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!