One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Love Fully Where You Are
One Thousand Gifts is written by Ann Voscamp. She created a daily list of gifts in order to find joy in her everyday life of raising and homeschooling six children. She also found peace for her painful childhood memories. My favorite part of the book is when she talks about how Jesus “gave thanks” for the bread before breaking it and sharing it with His disciples during the last meal he ate with them.(Luke 22:19)
Jesus knew he was going to his death soon and yet he was thankful! Ann shares that the Greek word for “he gave thanks” is eucharisteo. She explains the Greek meanings of the word this way. “The root word for eucharisteo is charis, meaning “grace.” Jesus took the bread and saw it as grace and gave thanks. He took the bread and knew it to be gift and gave thanks.” (p.32) “But there is more…eucharisteo… also holds charis’ derivative, the Greek word chara, meaning “joy.”(p. 32) “So then as long as thanks is possible then joy is always possible.“(p. 33)
How Hard Things Can Be Gifts In Disguise
Hebrews Chapter 12 verse 2 states:”For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Jesus was under great stress (to the point of sweating drops of blood) while anticipating his excruciating death. Yet, He also knew that everything would come fabulously right in the end. I am inspired by her eloquent words, to try to imitate Christ by being thankful. We please God when we recognize His gifts and are thankful for them.
Ann muses about being thankful for the little things in life, like the way the sunlight creates rainbows in soap bubbles. Ann discusses being thankful for the messy things in life, like when a window gets broken by roughhousing children. She also covers death and pain and what she is learning about acceptance of these things as gifts from God’s good hand. Ann instructs us to keep a running list of God’s blessings, so we can remind ourselves of what God has provided.
This book opened my eyes to God’s gifts all around me. It enabled me to be more aware of His presence throughout my days. Her writing requires a lot of thinking, but it is definitely worth the effort.I would strongly encourage you to read this book and I invite you to comment below. I love to read your comments.
Did you enjoy this post, you may also like Gratitude Is A Lifeline: Grab A Hold & Don’t Let Go
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