Unlimited Gifts

Having just finished One Thousand Gifts a few days ago, I started the One Thousand Gifts Devotional. What's interesting is that as I've been writing my list of things I'm grateful for, I've often looked at them and wondered if I have been writing down the correct things. Like, is this really a gift or is this just a reflection of my environment or current circumstance?

As I started a new book, Gospel by J D Greear, he quotes C.S. Lewis as saying, "Earthly pleasures are supposed to function like rays of the sun that direct us back to their source." If that is the case, then each gift I have given thanks for is definitely a gift.

Maybe it's just me, but for as many times as I've seen or read the suggestion of a gratitude journal, I've always assumed that the things we write should be loftier than what I've listed up to this point. Like they should all be the grand things, the things that are miraculous, or spectacular in more eyes than just my own. But the reality is that doesn't even make sense.

I could give a friend a t-shirt that has a Scripture quote on it that would look super cute with jeans in the fall. But if she isn't a jeans and t-shirt kind of girl, while I am sure she would say thank you, it really wouldn't be a gift in her eyes. You give the gift you give based on what you know about the person.

So each of the gifts I have listed are really specific to me. Anyone could look at my list and think it's ridiculous because they wouldn't mean anything to them. But to me they are priceless. Why? Because they are the things I needed more than anything else in that moment and I recognized them as the perfect gifts God wanted me to have.

I don't know if you've read One Thousdand Gifts, and I don't know if you already have a gratitude journal or not. But I'd like to challenge you to join me in listing the gifts. What has God given you today that was just what you needed that put a smile on your face or even made you cry but let you know He was near? Not everything we are going to write is what we would ask for, but if God knows we need it for one reason or another, it's still a gift. And if the end result of all of them, even the ones we would prefer to return, is that we are more in awe of Him, I would think that makes it a good gift, too.

Father from the moment I wake up until I lay my head back down on the pillow, You give me the most incredible gifts. I can't thank you enough for opening my eyes to the unbelievable love that You choose to show me everyday. Give us all eyes to see how lavish You are in the things You send our way that are not only perfectly suited for us but intended to draw us closer to You. We love You and bend low in awe of Your amazing grace. Amen.