Gifts from the Giver....

I have SO enjoyed reading a blog by Ann called Holy Experience (holyexperience.blogspot.com) and have been encouraged to start my own list of 1,000 gifts I'm thankful for.

I'm not going back...I am starting in the present and will try jotting them down every fews days and maybe figuring out how to keep them in their own little file so I can go back frequently and be reminded of each simple blessing.

I love what Ann says: My list is different than another's for a reason: God has made me uniquely me. The Gift List is about gratitude... but it is more. It is about what defines me and my own personal identity. I am thankful for the things on it, yes, but I am also thankful that He has given the gift of me; that God made me who I am and I am one who sees and experiences the world in a way uniquely her own. The Thousand Gifts list is about the gifts Abba gives this child every day... and, ultimately, about the very gift of self, life as I know it.

I am seeing things I have never seen before, atuned and aware of this constant, endless stream of gifts from His hand. I am one waking from slumber....from the stupor of indifference and ignorance. I have sight, fresh and keen---the world is new and full of His gifts.

Too often I miss Him, oblivious, blind. I don't see all the good things that He is giving me, gracing me with, brushing my life with. True, He is everywhere, always. But maybe, before The Gift List, I thought of Him as further off, not so close. When I started to see all the things that I love bestowed upon me, I started to see Him as near, present, everywhere, showering me with good things. Seeing the things I love all around me gives me eyes to see that I am loved, that He loves me.


George MacDonald wrote, "No gift unrecognized as coming from God is at its own best...when in all gifts we find Him, then in Him we shall find all things."

It is the season of lists. Care to begin a list of a Thousand Gifts? You'll find Him in all things---the very best gift of all.

Father, You are the Giver of all Good Gifts. They are everywhere. I can hardly jot them down fast enough. How You love!

(doesn't she have such a way with words???)
Not my gift :)

So.......here's to the beginning.

1. an amazing golden sunset--My favorite part of the day is just before dusk.
I always want to call up my dear friends John and Jody and share the beauty of it with them. They are an amazing couple...a story for another time (which leads to..)

2. John and Jody-they show love, love, love like no one but Jesus himself!

3. my hardworking farmer/husband who has spent the afternoon cutting wood up to keep us warm this winter

4. freshly baked brownies from the oven...and a little 3 yr old who messes with the timer telling me "they're done!" before they are ready :) It's ok, I like gooey brownies!

5. watching the girls ride or work with our ponies Joe-Joe and Lucy (I love the way horses smell!)