a Sunday blessing - One Thousand Gifts

I am so enjoying this read

and her beautiful poetic thoughts

on faith

and grace

and thankfulness

and joy

 and how important it is to enjoy and love

where we are right now...

These very real lungs will breathe in more than 11,000 liters of air today, and tonight over our farm will rise the Great Hexagon of the blazing winter stars - Sirius, Rigel, ruby Aldebran, Capella, the fiery Gemini twins, and Procyon, and in the center, scarlet Betelgeuse, the red supergiant larger than twice the size of earth's orbit around the sun -  and I will embrace the skin of a boy child that my body grew from a seed.  The low heavens outside the paned windows fill with more snowflakes then stars, no two-stacked crystals the same; the trees in the wood draw in collective green breath to the still of January hibernation, and God in the world will birth ice from His womb, frost of heaven, bind the chains of the Pleiades, loose the cords of Orion, and number again the strands on my head (Job 38:31; Matthew 10:30).

Isn't it here?  The wonder?  Why do I spend so much of my living hours struggling to see it?  Do we truly stumble so blind that we must be affronted with binding magnificence for our blurry soul-sight to recognize grandeur?  The very same surging magnificence that cascades over our every day here.  Who has time or eyes to notice?

Ann Voskamp

Who has eyes or time to notice?

That line really gets me...

well today I will notice.

 so I get up and take a photo of the snow melting on the branches

 and I adore this photo taken at the coffee house yesterday

(we only have to look around in our every day for 

incredible beauty right?)

 and sitting next to me is this metal table

of my dear grandmother's

that I painted in gold leaf -

 for I know the plans I have for you 

declares the Lord...

and even last night's sunset looks beautiful in greys.

I hate to admit it but I have been coveting homes 

and wondering where we will live next.

I never dreamed I would live 25 years in the same place

and we have been feeling a tug to do something different,

but what?

So I started looking and then drooling...

and then today I innocently tried to put in a realtor's disc of a home

that is twice as much money as our home and...

ahem...

it jammed and I could not get it out or in and it was stuck for several hours

and needless to say - 

I had to shut down my beloved computer.

That got my attention.

Only God knows the plans he has for me and

I am sure there are plans

and if it is to stay put right here

then I will relish in 

His grace,

His abundance and blessings,

and find joy in the beauty that surrounds my every day.

amen