I write the gifts. I write the graces. At the beginning of the year, I took on Ann Voskamp's Joy Dare. Count one thousand gifts, one thousand graces, in one year. Just write 3 gifts a day. I start my journal, covered in Zambian chitenge fabric, in the midst of a storm on January 1st. And I write:
1- rain pelting the roof
2- wind rushing through the trees
3- hum of electricity
All is grace.
26- lunch with Mrs. Bolte interrupted 1,000 times
27- outdoor recess after 3 stir crazy days indoors
28- green apple jollyranchers
All is grace.
66- a paper snowflake just unfolded
67- Christ gives me His righteousness
68- Christ gives me a new heart with new desires
All is grace.
100- the sunlight that shines through the bottom of the left living room window
101- freshly swept hardwood floors
102- conversations with kindergarteners in the morning
All is grace.
163- the way the sun's heat feels on the back of my legs through jeans
164- Sunday night dinners after Gathering
165- Girl Scout cookies
All is grace.
199- steam rising from a freshly poured cup of coffee
200- chargrilled chicken at dinner with new friends
201- sleeping in on a Sunday morning
All is grace.
214- a bird chirping, singing its song, in the morning
215- where the pale orange meets sky blue in the sunrise
216- a 30 minute nap after work
It's all grace. All of it. Grace pursues me throughout the day. Most days I find it to be true that I don't find the graces; the graces find me. All of it is undeserved. And as I count the gifts, even on the long days, the hard days, the "I-have-no-idea-how-I'll-make-it-through-tomorrow" days, I find counting the gifts, naming them for what they are, reminds me that grace is greater. More accurately, the Giver of the grace is greater and He's constantly pouring reminders of His greatness, pouring grace and blessings, into my life. Counting gifts every day reminds me, that "nothing can overwhelm me — like grace can overtake me" (Ann Voskamp). It shifts my focus. It sets my eyes on Jesus because it all points me to Him--"All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made" (John 1:3). Or how about, "A man can receive nothing, except it have been given him from heaven" (John 3:27)? Nothing, not even one thing, is received unless it has been given from heaven. It increases my faith. Ralph Waldo Emerson writes, "All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen." Living thankful builds trust in the Provider of the gifts. Even the counting of gifts is a gift--God's grace to me to reveal more of Himself to me. Truly, all is grace.
