TAKING IT DAY-BY-DAY

The plume visible from my street on 10/6

As I write this in early-October, my valley is “on alert” with smoke-filled skies from major, spreading mountain fires. Even this evening, as the sun sets in the west, the clouds are washed gray, pink and orange from the smoke pollution. As I study the sky, I recall the years we survived arson-set fires at my end of town. As flames came closer, we stayed alert via the local radio station for evacuation orders. One night was especially scary—we were ready to load the car with “survival essentials” and leave--but the fire was stopped just blocks from our home.

During active fire season, the saying “day by day” becomes especially poignant. Though my hometown was first established in dry, “high desert” terrain, it's now a river-bisected valley known for its apples and other crops nurtured by irrigation systems. Sometimes that connection reminds me of the Living Water, the Lord Jesus, who refreshes us and nurtures the spiritual fruit within us.

Often, the best way to describe this growing faith-walk is “day by day,” also the title of a hymn that has been close to my heart for years. The lyrics came from the heart of a Swedish woman, Lina Sandell Berge, a pastor's daughter who endured poor health as a child. She was especially close to her father. Sadly, when she was 26, she watched in horror as he fell overboard from a passenger boat and drowned. She later married, but her only child died at birth.

Yet God's grace shone through her life tragedies. She would eventually write more than 650 hymns that enriched the Pietist revivals in Sweden in the late 19^th century. Her hymn, “Day by Day,” is one of my favorites. When sadness from my losses begins to cloud my hope, I find myself recalling its tune and lyrics, like these which open the hymn:

Day by day, and with each passing moment,

Strength I find to meet my trials here.

Trusting in my Father's wise bestowment,

I've no cause for worry or for fear.

The hymn goes on to declare that God, whose “heart is kind beyond all measure,” permits what happens each day, both “pain and pleasure, mingling toil with peace and rest.”

Hope despite the heat of destruction. Something beautiful and eternal beyond the ravages of earthly life. Faith beyond life's fiery times. Beauty from ashes. Lived...day by day.

Just an aside: the hymnist's surname “Berge” is in my family tree. My maternal grandfather, Martinus Berge, who died just before I was born, had immigrated from Norway.