but exhort one another daily, while it is called "Today," lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
— Hebrews 3:13, New Kings James Version


We used to wake to a Mt Hood sunrise nearly every morning off our front deck as we would look out across the Columbia River in Oregon. The sky was a deep deep purple with a few splashes of clouds on the horizon, and as the sun rose and cast its rays onto the clouds, there was a sense of what it almost could be like when the Lord returns in all His glory. I found this photograph this past week.

This was just one of the thousands of days we witnessed, but it caused me to contemplate the message given by the writer of Hebrews about the importance of "today". Poets write of yesterdays lost, and tomorrow’s hopes and expectations, but here we are faced with today, and the choices we will make. Like the sunrise behind Mt. Hood, will our lives reflect the beauty and love of Jesus to those around us, or will we be drawn to sin in our own lives?

Every day is new to us to do and to will. If there is any lesson that we can take from this passage, it is that today, we can have a determined will to do that which is good and loving and of God's leading.

Can we do no less "today"?