I am reading a book by Ann Voskamp:
“One
Thousand Gifts”. I am not even
halfway
through and it has
already touched my
heart.
I went to my room and started
looking around
and thinking about my own gifts from
God.
The sound of the fan whirring over
my head in
my room, the game
of chase that our sweet
little Chihuahua plays with us, and
a blessing
of a car that has a speedometer that works
“sometimes”.
Then I look at
pictures that hold precious moments
in my life. The picture of my first
grandson Fischer
when he was a baby. Two pictures:
one of his mother
holding him and one of his daddy.
Both mom and dad
are looking at him so tenderly.
I see a picture of my other son and
his wife. He is
holding my first granddaughter. She is wearing a
onesie that has the logo of his
favorite football team.
Then there is the picture of my
daughter with two
dogs: Pocket and Rocket. Precious
memories.
In just a few short minutes I wrote
down thirteen
gifts. I am so excited to think of
writing down the
day to day gifts that God has
blessed me with and
to see all the ways that He loves
me.
I also reflect on a verse in the
bible: I Thessalonians
5:17-18 pray without ceasing; in
everything give
thanks; for this is God’s will for
you in Christ Jesus.
As I think about this I know that I also
need to look
back on
my life and think of those moments
which were frightening or sad. I
need to think of those
as gifts because God saw me through
those times. He
brought me out of the stormy times
into times of
rainbow and sunshine.
I hope that I am able to write more
about this journey
and all the gifts. I am sure like
Ann Voskamp that I can
come up with One Thousand at least.
I hope you can
also start thinking of God’s gifts
each day. Maybe a
rainy day won’t seem like a blah day
or a day full of
stress will be seen from a different
perspective.
One Thousand Gifts: start your counting.
Judy Wood
