Monday, February 11, 2013

For February 12th:


“I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me.” Proverbs 8:17

“It was a dare, like a love dare of sorts,…a friend’s dashed-off digital line blinks on my screen. She dares me, and I don’t even blink. Could I write a list of a thousand things I love?...To name one thousand blessings—one thousand gifts—…I begin the list. Not of gifts I want but of gifts I already have.
1.     Morning shadows across the old floors
2.     Jam piled high on toast
3.     Cry of blue jay from high in the spruce
That is the beginning and I smile. I can’t believe how I smile. I mean, they are just common things and maybe I don’t even know they are gifts really until I write them down and that is really what they look like. Gifts He bestows. This writing it down—it is sort of like…unwrapping love.
            16. Leafy life scent of the florist shop
            17. The creak of her old knees
            18. Wind flying cold wild in hair
…Writing the list, it makes me feel…happy. All day. I can hardly believe how it does that,…And I add one more to the list. To feel it all again.
…Well, if all these were gifts that God gives---then wasn’t my writing down the list like…receiving. Like taking with thanks.”
Ann Voscamp, “One Thousand Gifts”, 2009

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