Opened my eyes this morning and I could see the beautiful blue sky, white fluffy clouds sketched on the blue sky canvas by Father Sky. The morning sun’s rays were filtering down through the bamboo canes so prettily. Another glorious day for me to make my own. I remembered a quote I read yesterday that said, “Enjoy your life today because yesterday has gone and tomorrow may never come,” Alan Coren.

Every day we wake we have a blank canvas we bring to life with brush strokes of color. Some of us have peaceful strokes of color splashed happily across our world. Some of us have quick strokes of bold colors, hurriedly dashing through our modern world, stopping just long enough when we get close to the canvas to brush another stroke of color. Some of us with children and all their extracurricular activities and commitments don’t even have time to pick up a brush much less paint. They splash a splotch of color when they get close enough to the flick the palette near the canvas. Some of us experiencing unexpected illness have a dark colored canvas but a radiant rainbow can be seen peeking through the strokes of dark colors.

We all choose how we color our day. We don’t have a great day, we make a day great by how we respond to our daily life. If we appreciate all the small joys in our life we can have a beautiful day. When a thunderstorm threatens our day we can remember rain cools the earth and cleans the air and fertilizes the gardens. And we might see a rainbow when the storm ends. These momentary struggles help us appreciate the wondrous days when life goes smoothly and there aren’t any rocks on our path to cause us to stumble.

The trials we go through in life help draw us close to God. The Bible reads of three kind of storms in life: storms we bring on ourselves, storms that God causes, and storms that other people cause. The storms we weather teach us to lean on the Lord and to pray, to rely on his strength and faithfulness to protect us. God gives us shelter to wait out the storms in life.

“If you want to see the sunshine, you have to weather the storm.” — Frank Lane