“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (John 13:34, ESV).

It was a different kind of work day. I finished early, enjoyed a quick dinner with my wife and made it to my granddaughter’s lacrosse game. Then my grandson came over to spend the night because his house was filled with sister’s girlfriends for a birthday party. We ran for a milkshake; then, he beat me playing HORSE, beat me at chess, burned scrap wood in my firepit and then watched my favorite movie together with me. He slept on our bedroom floor in a sleeping bag. It was a good day.

What makes a good day?

This day of mine was a break from the ordinary, but it was not good just because it was a break from the ordinary. It was good because of the relationship time I had with my family.

The next morning, I began to think of all the good days I have had, wanting to consider the making of a good day. I thought of the days I slept late, and my wife made me pecan waffles, the days off where my wife and I would accomplish some task at home together, the days of our anniversary cruise and the little pizza restaurant at the foot of the Spanish Steps in Rome, the days I worked long hours but went home satisfied because of the patients whom God had helped through me, the day I heard for the first time “What A Beautiful Name” sung just before I spoke at an In His Image residency retreat, the day I lay beside my mother when we handed her off to Jesus, the day I saw a Bible on my grown  son’s front seat and the day his son struck out three straight batters, the day my patient, weak from a brain tumor, smiled and told me of her trust in Jesus, the day I walked the trail to the Blue Hole with a friend in the mountains of Tennessee, the day I finished a marathon with my daughter, the day I heard my other daughter sing “O Holy Night” at her small eclectic church, the day the patient grabbed my hands in clinic and prayed for me, though he was the one with advanced cancer, and on and on.

What was it about these days that made them good? They were good because of relationships, relationship with friends, family, patients and the Lord, relationships for which we were created. I know it would not be good for me to seek good days by forcing relationships into them, but it would be really nice if I could focus on the relationships within each day rather than just completing the tasks.

Dear God,

Thank you for the good days.

Amen