Just another day
I awoke just like any other work day. I put my routine into automatic. After getting ready, I left the house and I closed the door, just like any other day. When I got to work, I walked up the steps to the office I shared with a coworker. I’m not sure what the task was that I was assigned that day, but just like any other day, I’m sure I went right to work on it.
A short time later, I went downstairs to get an answer to a question I was working on. Someone said to me, “Did you hear that a plane crashed into a building in New York.” Still focused on my work, I replied, “No, I hadn’t heard about that.” I noticed a lot of people huddled in masses talking among themselves. But I had a task ahead of me and I was focused, so I went on looking for my answer. When I got my answer I went back upstairs to my office.
Before too long I started getting hungry, so I decided to go to lunch. As I walked down the steps someone said to me, “Did you hear a second plane crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City.” Everyone was looking for a TV or radio so they could get more information. I was in shock. This was just like every other day. How could something so dramatic happen on a day like this?
Warren G. Harding was elected by an overwhelming majority (nearly 60 percent) in the election of 1920. He won every state outside the southern states. But three years later, in 1923, his popularity started to wane. He decided to go out and meet the people and explain himself. He called it his Voyage of Understanding tour. They scheduled eighteen speeches for him on this tour. It was far from DC and would mainly cover the west coast of the United States, Alaska (which wasn’t a state yet), and Canada. He would be the first President to visit Alaska. He would also be the first sitting President to visit Canada.
The prior Fall, Harding’s health started to decline. He was having trouble sleeping and looked very tired. He loved golf, but has having trouble making it through even nine holes. The doctors thought it might be a good idea for him to get away from the pressures of Washington for a while, so a tour could mix speeches with relaxation.
On the way out of DC they made a stop in Kansas. Despite the doctor’s disapproval, Harding made an appearance in the heat before a crowd. He would show his spirit by riding a farm combine. He was unable to get much rest when he was in Alaska, either. In Alaska, he would also hear the first rumblings about the corruption of the people in his administration that would forever tarnish his legacy.
The next stop was Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He would go out to play a round of golf but would get very sick. The doctors thought it was food poisoning. He would speak to a crowd of 50,000 anyway. Then it was off to Seattle where he would speak to a crowd of 25,000. He really wasn’t feeling good after this and had to cancel a speech in Portland, Oregon. They then took a train to San Francisco.
It is one of the oldest professions known to man. It is being a shepherd. It was believed to have started some 5000 years ago. Sheep have been raised for wool, meat, and milk, which, at one point, was very popular in cheeses. A shepherd’s duties include: keeping the flock intact, protecting them, and guiding them to markets where they can be sheared.
The sheep are not usually owned by the shepherds. Shepherds are usually paid to watch other people’s sheep. Shepherds are nomadic people and they move the sheep often from pasture to pasture. Shepherds are usually males and the youngest sons of farming peasants with large families because there is rarely any inheritance of the family’s land left for them.
On August 2, 1923 Harding’s health seem to improve. Later that night, around 7:30pm, he was having a conversation with his wife and died right in the middle of that conversation. His main doctor said it was probably a stroke, but other doctors disagreed claiming it was more likely apoplexy. His wife refused to allow an autopsy.
It was just another day with the exception that he was visiting his family in Vermont. They had no electric or phone service back then. It was late at night and he had long since gone to bed. There was a knock at the door. They went upstairs to wake him up and to tell him that President Harding was dead and he would now become President. Under the light of a kerosene lamp, his father, who was a notary public, administered the oath of office. Calvin Coolidge then went upstairs and went back to sleep. The next day he headed back to Washington DC. A little bit after his arrival, he had Justice Adolph A. Hoehling, Jr., of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, swear him in again so that there would be no legal questions to come up later.
It was just another day. I’m sure one day of being a shepherd is pretty much like all the rest of them. Sure, a predator ventures into the area every once in a while, but for the most part there is a lot of standing or sitting around just making sure everything is okay. Then the day comes when you have to move the sheep or take them to get sheared. Then it is back to the same old thing. This day probably was one of those slow moving days.
Then one of the shepherds noticed a bright object in the night sky. He turned to his coworkers and pointed it out. But as he pointed it out, another, then another, then yet another bright light appeared in the starlit sky. Soon the sky was filled with these bright objects. It scared them to death. It wasn’t until they started singing Handel’s Messiah that they realized they were angels. When the angels finished they told them to go witness for themselves the birth of the Baby Jesus.
On September 11, 2001 no one expected the day to be any different than the day before. We went to work. We started our task. But those of us around on that day know exactly where we were. I remember President George W. Bush’s startled look when he was at a school reading to some children. A man in a suit leaned over and whispered something in his ear. I remember driving home that day and the eerie feeling I had as I looked up into the sky and not a single plane was in the air (because the President had ordered a grounding of all commercial flights). No, it was far from just another day.
I’m sure Calvin Coolidge thought August 3, 1923 was going to be just another day. I’m sure the shepherds in the field thought the day the angels would announce Christ’s birth was going to be just another day. No, they were far from just another day.
The truth is that we wake up every morning with just another day. Sometimes God reminds us that He really doesn’t create just another day. He has given us each day full of potential and surprises. Don’t let your day be just another day.
Prayer: Dear Mighty Father, Thank you for each morning you have given me. Forgive me when I think of it as just another day. Help me to enjoy and use each day to its fullest potential. Amen.
