Tag Archive for Praise to You Giver of Life

The Gift of Life

With You is the fountain of life. (Psalm 36:9, NASB)

Do you believe the whole universe simply came to be, with no cause or creator? Do you believe that all the matter in all the stars in all the vastness of space had no source? Do you believe that the well-ordered laws of nature somehow just happened on their own?

What about life? Your body is a miracle. It is made up of billions of microscopic cells, each alive, each intricately constructed, each carrying on complex functions that no factory or laboratory can match. And somehow they all perform together in a magnificent dance that keeps your body working around the clock, without you even being conscious of it.

You didn’t ask to be born. You didn’t create yourself. You do little to keep yourself alive. Most of your essential physical functions operate automatically, requiring no conscious effort on your part. Virtually all you have to do is feed and water yourself, and for that you’ve been given powerful, built-in drives.

Quite literally, life is a gift. Your life is a gift. Each human life is a precious gift.

How should we respond to this gift of life? We should receive it with awe…with reverence…with joyful gratitude…with sober thought for how we treat this life in ourselves and in others.

We should receive this gift with love. Life was given with love, and we should receive it with love – love for our Creator and love for His life in each human creation around us. Love preserves life, enriches life, and treats it with the care and respect that it deserves.

Father, help me to see other people,
not as physical creatures,
not as crumbling shells, shallow and temporary,
but as You see them,
as living, eternal beings.

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Hymn: Praise to You, Giver of Life!
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Patient with Differences

Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. (Romans 12:15-16, NASB)

Here in the Amazon section of the zoo, in a single cage I’m watching the squirrel monkeys nimbly leaping around in incessant motion. Meanwhile, slow-moving animals graze on the ground, and a two-toed sloth just hangs there.

God designs us so differently. We share the same space and time. But our metabolisms, bodies, experiences, and specific needs are so varied. We each perceive reality through our individual eyes.

Lord, I am a limited creature. Keep me humble. Help me always be patient with my fellow creatures, always kind to them, always anxious to learn from them.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Praise to You, Giver of Life!
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics