Last week I ran into a friend whom I hadn't seen for a while. His first comment was, "Bruce, you look content." I had to stop and think about it a bit, but on reflection I realize that he made a good observation.
In this season, I feel as though Psalm 23 is more of a reality than ever. And perhaps I am starting to live it more visibly. David wrote:
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. (Psalm 23:5a NIV)
My own paraphrase is something like this:
When I feel like a storm is brewing, He is thinking picnic.
He so wants me to take my eyes off of the circumstances and rather fix them on the the goodies he is spreading before me.
This evening my desktop computer died. I was going to scan some old photos out of an album in preparation for our daughter's upcoming wedding. But the connection between computer and scanner wasn't working. So I thought that a reboot would be in order. (It had been a while.) But, rather than restarting, the power supply simply gave up.
That was a bummer. Especially since there is a lot of data on that computer which could be difficult to restore. And I don't really have time to be rebuilding a computer.
My wife is in the habit of looking at it this way: Father who are you going to be for me in this situation that you couldn't otherwise be for me?
So, it's time to go picnicking.
Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life (Psalm 23:6a NIV)