G. K. Chesterton wrote an imaginative poem about a man who wakes up to a day in this world. He is not born into it, so he does not have several years of life and experiences behind him. He just wakes up, fully grown and fully alive to a day in the midst of life– and everything is new to him. As I said, it is an imaginative poem. I could not find the poem, and I do not remember the details, so I will describe the gist of it briefly in my own words.
The man is first of all filled with awe and joy at seeing the sun rise. He then has the delicious pleasure of eating a breakfast of bacon and eggs. He goes for a walk in a park, enjoying immensely the trees, the fragrance of every flower, and the sight of such a wonderful variety of birds and cute little animals along the way. He meets some people and finds them friendly and pleasant; and they all have such interesting things to tell him. Then there is more good food, more people to meet, more laughter and joy. Finally there is the beauty of the sunset. One of the man’s new companions says to him, “Good-night, my friend, I will see you in the morning.” And the man is astonished and overjoyed, and he says, “What? You mean I get two of these days!” He did not know what we know about average life expectancy, so he was profoundly grateful for the experience of a single day in God’s good world.
Most of us get thousands, even tens of thousands, such days.
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Psalm 118:24 — This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Psalm 103:2 — Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.
II Corinthians 6:2b — Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
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Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take. Amen.
–Traditional children’s prayer
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This is not the poem I tried to remember for the above meditation, but it is a shorter version by the same author:
Here dies another day
During which I have had eyes, ears, hands
And the great world round me;
And with tomorrow begins another.
Why am I allowed two?
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