by Christine Sine
Another week enamoured of my new morning mantra:
Thank God for the gift of life, this wondrous gift so freely given.
This week my focus was on the gift of breath, so intimately interwoven with the gift of life. This is a recurrent theme for me, but I have never felt so deeply moved by my meditations. Breath is the first gift God ever gives us, and the last. It is the gift that is given every moment of every day over and over and over again. It is a gift given to every living organism. In some way, every single part of creation inhales and exhales. Yet we so easily take this incredible gift for granted. Though perhaps one of the lessons we learned from COVID is not to take our breath for granted.
So today I sit looking at the prayer above, which I also have printed on a canvas board, and thinking about my breath and the wonder of a God who reached down into the soil, molded it into the shape we call human, breathed on it and formed that first human being. (Genesis 2:7 The Voice) Then I fast forward to the New Testament and imagine myself as one of Jesus’ disciples. I close my eyes and sense his warm breath as he moves close and breathes his spirit into me and says: “Welcome the Holy Spirit of the living God.” (John 20:21-22 The Voice)
Now I cup my hands and take a deep breath in through my nose and out into my hands. The warmth of it feels good against the chill of the morning air. I walk outside and repeat the process, imagining my breath moving out into the atmosphere laden with carbon dioxide that the trees in our back yard eagerly grab hold of, replenishing the air I exhaled with oxygen then sending it back to me or on to someone else. Wow, this act of breathing is far more wondrous and far more complex than I imagined. My breath is connected not just to the great Creator of the universe, it is connected to every other creature on our planet. God’s breath instills life into all creation. This wondrous gift of life and breath is truly incredible and I pray you will pause to think about it today.
I thank you God for the gift of breath,
First gift and last of my life,
A gift that fills me every moment of every day –
over and over and over again.
I thank you God for the wonder
of waking each day with breath in my lungs,
and your love in my heart.
I thank you for the breath you breathe,
On me, in me, through me.
Thank you for the gift you keep on giving
your life filling me each moment with love and mercy and joy.
(c) Christine Sine 2021
So much to give thanks to God for in every single breath of every day.
If you have time watch the video below and rejoice in the wonder of breath and of the God who continually gives us this wondrous gift.
You might also like to check out the series of breath cards I created a couple of years ago.
They are available as a downloadable pdf or as a set of cards
