Happy St. Patrick’s Day

Day 75 of Photo Inspirations — Happy St. Patrick’s Day
This was the Washington Post’s headline for today.   “Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Here’s the chemistry that makes your beer taste good (or bad).  The flavors and aromas of beer all come down to chemistry.  St. Patrick’s Day is here, and that means the world is about to consume a lot of beer: 13 million pints of Guinness alone are expected to be consumed.”

Quite amusing, and it’s a great day for celebrating, but I’m NOT thinking about beer OR science today when I think about St. Patrick’s Day.  I know, like other religious holidays, this is another “watered….er’ beered down” day where we get distracted from  the true meaning of this day, but I want to honor St. Patrick by sharing who this man was — just in case you may not know. He was born around A.D. 389 in England. At the age of 16, he was kidnapped and sold as a slave in Ireland. Six years later he escaped and returned home to Britain, but became burdened for the spiritual condition of the Irish. He eventually returned to their land as a missionary for 40 years, where he established more than 200 churches and led more than 100,000 to faith in Christ.  It is told that he used the shamrock to talk about the Trinity.  His death on March 17, 461 is remembered each year as St. Patrick’s Day.  WOW — like Joseph, St. Patrick, was sold to slavery, and like Joseph, “what the enemy meant for evil, God turned for good”. (Genesis 50:20)

Listen to how utterly consumed St. Patrick was with his relationship with God in his prayer:  
“I arise today through God’s strength to pilot me, God’s might to uphold me,
God’s wisdom to guide me, God’s eye to look before me,
God’s ear to hear me, God’s word to speak for me, God’s hand to guard me.
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise.
Christ in the heart of everyone one who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every one who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me.
I arise today through His mighty strength.”

St. Patrick, his witness, his prayer, his passion and his example really is something to celebrate today.  The green I wear today, honors him, honors the God he served and HE is also MY Lord, and MY God!
#StPatricksDay #ChristInMe