“O, it sets my heart a clickin’ like the tickin’ of a clock, when the frost is on the punkin and the fodders in the shock.”

The autumn mornings are already cool. Who remembers waking up on a cold morning in a feather bed? The temperature inside the house was the same as the temperature outside, but that was okay because you had fifty pounds of quilts and blankets over you. No one wanted to come out from under the covers, but someone had to be the first.

Then, there was the sound of someone shaking the grate in the stove. Ashes and sparks fell into a pan, and the slumbering fire awakened. There was no adjusting a thermostat. Soon the house was warm, and you could just back up close to the stove and bake.

Those days are a memory now, but what is unchanging is the fact that when our eyes open to a new day, God is already up. “Great is Thy faithfulness O God our Father. Morning by morning new mercies we see. Thou changest not, Thy compassions they fail not.”

The gospel song says, “When the world seems cold…there is someone who cares for you.” How we awaken will decide the direction the day. We all know it when someone gets up on the wrong side of the bed. Let the Love of God be the warmth of our heart today. After all, “This is the day that the Lord has made, rejoice and be glad in it!”

“Summer and winter and springtime and harvest
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love”