D is for DAY

Van Morrison said there'd be days like this but I don't think it was exactly what he had in mind. Take this month for example. 1st Feb - Unicef Day for Change, 2nd Feb - World Wetlands Day, 3rd Feb - National Potato Day, 12th February - Safe Internet Day, 14th February - Gold Heart Day, 15th Feb - International Childhood Cancer Day, 21st February, International Mother Language Day, 22nd Feb - World Thinking Day, 23rd Feb - Work Your Proper Hours Day, 29th Feb - 24 hour Tea or Coffee Break. And I haven't even included the 'normal' special days like Candlemas, Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday and St. Valentine's Day.So you thought February was just a mundane month that you wanted out of the way to get closer to Spring.

Well you haven't heard the half of it yet! For not only do we have special days this month, whole weeks are given the treatment as well. We leave January and arrive her in the middle of National Storytelling Week, which seems rather appropriate for me, but also Be Loud Week, also known as Loud Tie Campaign and that has only finished when World Orphan Week sidles in, during which the Chinese New Year arrives and both National Bramley Apple week and National Marriage Week commence. Then to take us up to half way through the twenty none days, we all celebrate National Chip Week which, on the 14th is replaced by National Nest Box Week and a couple of days later by Bacon Connoisseurs Week and as we approach the end of the month, Student Volunteering Week. Then just to make sure that we are kept on our toes, a couple of 'major' specialities overlap and take us into March, namely Fair Trade Fortnight and Eating Disorders Week. And if all that lot isn't enough for you to wish for spring, then don’t forget February is Make Chatter Matter Month.

So I've worked it out that I need to spend this month telling stories, eating potatoes in all forms, but especially chips, listening to little children, not in school uniform, babbling, but telling them to be careful how they use the internet, thinking about rivers and other damp places, rats, (Chinese New Year), my marriage, scoffing pancakes, making apple tarts, buying red hearts and gold hearts, erecting nest boxes, raising money for children's illnesses, sampling Ulster Fries with plenty of bacon, listening and appreciating the Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese and Russian tongues I hear in school and in our local villages as well as ordering my Chow Mein and Vindaloo an the mother language, reading signs in Irish and singing the Welsh National Anthem in Welsh during the Six Nations, have a good old think, especially about water, work no overtime and have a good long lunch on Friday, give a couple of students, who just happen to live in our house, a kick up the backside and tell them to start volunteering to wash the dishes, make their beds, tidy their rooms and maybe make the occasional meal. All in the name of Student Volunteering Week of course. And all in the best possible taste! Then I'll just end the month by having a coffee morning at which I can think about where all my food comes from and about people in poorer countries and have a whole day when I don't eat anything so that I know what it feels like to have an eating disorder.How am I going to pack it all in to twenty nine days and still have time for God, church, wife, school, family, television, books, mealtimes, Whitie the cat, whose disobedience has now been forgiven if not forgotten and myself?

Yes Van Morrison said there'd be days like this but I'm pretty sure now that's not what he meant, for his song is all about the days when things go really well, when you don't have any problems or anything to worry about and when life just feels good. Not days when something goes wrong at work or a family crisis looms or deadlines have to be met or test results are not what you had hoped for. Not days in February like seeing my mum live out the last hours of her life or watching another family from afar as they suffer the grief of loss. Not days like the break up of a marriage or a relationship or a teenager unable to cope with the pressures of life. I guess every day doesn't have to have a title to make it special because whether it's one of Van the Man's type days or the worst day you can think of or just National Potato Day, every day with Jesus is special. The Psalmist says of the believer 'His delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.' But Jesus reminds us with this warning 'Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.' But Paul also comforts us with these words 'Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.'The message is simple. Make every day precious and special. Make every day with Jesus.