In the 19th chapter of Luke's Gospel, Jesus looks at the city of Jerusalem and weeping, speaks these words:

   ""If you had only recognized this day, and everything that was good for you!"


   My favorite picture, taken at the Wailing Wall, when we spent a day in Israel several years back is one that shows an orthodox jewish man, standing at the Wall talking on his cell phone, a great contrast between the modern and the ancient. Unless he was using the phone to get a direct line for his prayers, he was conducting routine business in a holy place. The only direct line the people at the Wall were using was to put slips of paper into the cracks.

   I think of how I treat the holy sometimes. Sitting in church and thinking of everything else but.

   If I would only recognize the day, the day that I am living inside of, I would be more aware of what is going on. But instead I look at the past and then the future, and forget to live in the present. I fail to see what it is all about and to think about where I am and why.

   I am trying more to stop and look around, to recognize not only my surroundings, but a possible reason for being there. To see the people around me, my relationships with them, and my possible role in their lives.

   When you are living in the same place, seeing the same people, doing the same things, and just doing what you did yesterday and the yesterdays before that, it can become routine, but no day is the same. God give me each day and expects me to live in it.

   Since I may not have too many of those days left, maybe I should take my own advice and crank up my awareness, both of the day and what God has for me. There are blessings in each day and opportunities for service.

   "Open the eyes of my heart, Lord"