Thankful on a Monday

I'm always amazed by the way God speaks to me through the circumstances and people around me, through the books I read or music I listen to, through the prayers of His people or the Word that comes forth from the man of God's mouth. If I'm careful to look for it, I can find a single thread, the main idea, the thesis of the chapter I'm about to enter into. For months now, God's grace, eucharisteo, and my need to live a thankful life, are the main idea. Ann Voskamp says, in chapter 5 of her book One Thousand Gifts, after her young son put his hand through a barn fan,

"God is always good, and I am always loved. Everything is eucharisteo. Because eucharisteo is how Jesus, at the Last Supper, showed us to transfigure all things--take the pain that is given, give thanks for it, and transform it into a joy that fulfills all emptiness. I have glimpsed it: This, the hard eucharisteo. The hard discipline to lean into the ugly and whisper thanks to transfigure it into beauty. The hard discipline to give thanks for all things at all times because He is all good. The hard discipline to number the griefs as grace because as the surgeon would cut open my son's finger to heal him, so God chooses to cut into my ungrateful heart to make me whole.

All is grace only because all can transfigure."

Challenges come, the storms do blow. People get sick, loved ones die, words sting, choices devestate. We pray, but the outcomes are not always what we pray for, what we hope for. But all can transfigure, and all is grace, and we can thank in the midst of the hard, the difficult, the scary or overwhelming circumstances we find ourselves in.

#41-50, and counting...

~So many friends willing to help

~Toddler talk

~Emma and her bunnies

~The way he doesn't want to go without me

~"Why are you so beautiful?"

~"I love you". Everyday. Faithfully.

~Hot showers

~Sisters-in-law

~Sending kids outside

~Fresh baked chocolate chip cookies