Grace Gifts

I loved the book, One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp, so much so that I keep delaying loaning it out!  There are some theological differences to reformed theology that are only apparent at the very end, but that was not a big distraction from the blessing of the book to me.  I have read some writing with similar themes in recent years and have come away quite disconcerted.  I understand some of what it means to live an intentionally thankful life (though I have a long way to go), even to look for the joy in the midst of sorrow.  We talk often of what it feels, looks, and even tastes like (salty tears) to live in a place of beauty and brokenness.  

Ann states, "If I name this moment as a gift, grace, what is the next moment? Curse?"(p.85)  My stomach turned sour when I first read this, it is easier somehow to label a vague "brokenness" than to be bold enough to name a curse.  What of the evil that stalks in dark corners of this forgotten community I live in?  I have found myself frustrated with a yearning for justice that seems hidden within folds of the cloak of beauty and brokenness.  In the midst of wonder - capturing and naming a thousand gifts - Ann asks, "What are all the other moments?" (p.86)

"Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." Psalm 119:105

I find that the answer to this is in the map of God's Word (and the incarnate Christ, Jesus, who knows our pain) I do not feel compelled to lead anyone into a journey of journaling to a thousand (though I do have a journal to write these graces occasionally for the joy, and the discipline, of it!).  His Word is the ultimate story of any list of gifts journaled.  He is the Alpha and Omega, grace moments made flesh, offering us the ultimate grace of redemption through every moment of life. Ann Voskamp writes, "How does the Word read the World?" (p.87) Only the Word can enlighten what the eyes see.  

God moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform; 

He plants his footsteps in the sea, and rides upon the storm. 

William Cowper

 What a blessed opportunity I have to be a part of a growing ministry community.  May we learn to adjust each other's glasses by the light of the Word!  Knowing that our ability to name graces and curses is skewed; but our Lord is great, "his understanding is infinite" (Psalm 147:5).