I know I’m a few years late to the party, but I’ve recently been reading Ann Voskamp’s blog, A Holy Experience. She helped us have one of the most anticipatory Advent seasons to date. This woman is nothing if not passionate. And looking at her photographs actually makes me wish I lived on a farm. Wow. That’s saying something. But I think it’s just for the farmhouse. 🙂
A few weeks ago she revealed her name for the new year. I like that idea. A name for 2013 to keep my focus. A name to help me be intentional. A name to motivate. A name in her words, “as we name our newborn…so we know who it is to us. Named, we now have a destination, a way across the next twelve months.”
So, after some consideration (after all, naming something is a big deal!), I’ve named 2013 Today.Â
Because today is full of provision, problems, possibilities, and promises to get me through. When I first opened my eyes today, I knew I had another opportunity to experience God’s goodness in the land of the living. And I don’t want to miss it.
I want to taste the bread He gives for today. I want to watch the birds and admire the flowers and know that today He will carefully clothe and care for me even better than He does them (Matthew 6). I want to repent and experience His forgiveness for my sins, when like Peter, I deny Him at least three times today before the clock chimes 3 PM (Matthew 27). I want to see Him do remarkable things today by witnessing His power to forgive others’ sins with the authority only He has (Luke 5). I want to be ready to fellowship with Him as He comes to meet me today, like He did Zaccheaus (Luke 19). And today when I hear His voice speaking to my unbelief, I won’t harden my heart in sin and rebellion. And because we’re all made of the same stuff, I’ll encourage others to respond to Him too, while it’s still called today (Hebrew 3). Even when I’m fed up and annoyed with seemingly nothing left to give, and I don’t feel like encouraging others, I’ll remember that today is like 1,000 years to Him and maybe I’ll be patient like He is with them, willing that none should perish but that all may come to the truth (2 Peter 3). When I look at my “To Do” app with the long list under “Today“, before I boast that I’m going to go here and there and do this or that, I’ll humbly admit, “Only if the Lord wills” (James 4). And should today be the day I die, I want my soul to rest in Jesus’ promise to the thief – and me too since I’m as vile as he – “Today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23).
“I am a flower quickly fading, here today and gone tomorrow, a wave tossed in the ocean, a vapor in the wind.”
So teach me to number my todays.
A Museum of Memories 
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