Every Single Thing

            Last week I read Ann Voskamp’s 2010 book, one thousand gifts (and yes, the title is all in lower-case letters).  It was exactly what I needed. 

            It was a blessed week with the birth of my granddaughter, Ava Rose, on May 24.  She joins 2 ½ year-old Josiah, 5 year-old Joelle, and 9 year-old Benjamin.  It was a hard week because of my ongoing fibromyalgia flare, which knocked me out of usefulness with debilitating fatigue.  I wanted to be across the street at their house much more, helping Dana and Shawn with children and meals.  Instead, after an hour with a grandchild or making a meal, I was laid low in bed or on the couch for the rest of the day. 

            And then, one thousand gifts with its wondrous words and profound sacred truths entered my energy-starved life.  Voskamp’s poetic prose reached deep into my soul.  From her I learned afresh the thing God has been pressing into my heart for a good two years with depth, angle, and light I had not yet seen.  And the truth, the joy, is so simple it is hard to say without sounding like cliché:  it is life in Jesus Christ.  We are to live in God’s presence in the present with heartfelt gratitude for every single thing.

            I can trust God’s goodness, his generous grace.  He is in the details, even when the details seem wrong.  He is in the beautiful moments, in the hardest hours, and in all our days.