This day

Thursday in the First Week of Lent

Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving

and make good your vows to the Most High.

Psalm 50:14

I watch one neighbor getting into her car for her drive to work and I see another return from her morning run. A school bus passes by. Soon there will be children walking to school. Another Thursday morning in another February in another Lent.

But it is not any day. It is today, and only today. What opportunities will unfold before me this day? Occasions to be kind. Chances to make things right. And many reasons to practice gratitude.

And so I begin, thanking God for the sunshine and for the beginning green of tulips and crocuses pushing through the vestiges of snow. For hot coffee in a favorite mug. For my neighborhood. For each child that walks by my house. For the teachers who cherish them. For a community in which to offer my gifts and grow closer to the Holy One. For this Lent and this time to repent and return and for a Savior who never stops calling me home.