Hear It on Sunday, Use It on Monday: On Reaching 1,000

I recorded my first gift -- spring song of chickadee -- on the pristine pages of a brand-new, spiral-bound notebook six months after my mother-in-law's death, 11 months before my father-in-law would follow her. I suspect God knew I would need this tool to see. I think he knew I would need it to believe he was with us, even when darkness descended.

Today I flip through a notebook full, pages crinkled and curling, spattered with dish water and coffee droplets, pencil smudged.

I notice how many of my gifts involve food...

16 Beef Bourginon in the crockpot... 19 Coffee and biscotti... 21 Buttery bagels

I glimpse the change of seasons...

36 purple crocus buds...156 giant bumble bee...184 scent of fresh mown grass... 706 autumn sunshine on sunroom walls... 767 a husband who scrapes my windshield.

I see how my eyes have been opened in the most mundane places...

82 nun wearing a backpack at the bus stop... 738 mom and little boy watching big rigs drive by... 936 elderly man with his hand on his wife's back in grocery store.

I see how my definition of gifts has broadened and grown...

60 sitting on the front stoop...177 smiling at strangers... 969 the gynecologist... 995 tornado sirens.

I spot my kids' handwriting...

6 Dad hug... 353 sweet lime popsickle... 973 butterfly landing on my shirt.

And my husband's...

121 big homecoming hugs at the airport... 349 carbs... 993 full-court basketball.

In the end, the moments are small, but strung together, one after the other, they comprise something monumental, something transformational, something much bigger than me. I see it written right there, line after penciled line:

A life of daily thanks.

And these small moments, all 1,000 of them, are why I will keep listing. The notebook will stay open on the kitchen counter. The pencil will sit sharpened and ready. The pages will absorb breakfast spatters and our living minute by minute in God's grace.

For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it is received with gratitude; for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer.  1 Timothy 4:4-5

990 Maple seeds helicoptering in the wind
991 3,200 words written for my project
992 Early morning sun on dandelion seed fluffs
993 Full-court basketball
994 Laughing with friends at dinner
995 Tornado sirens
996 The scent of air after rain shower
997 A husband who remembers to bring the patio cushions indoors before it storms
998 "A dog as big as a cow!"
999 Remembering the Holocaust victims and survivors
1000 Looking for #1001

Grateful for Ann Voskamp, for setting me on this course toward 1,000 gifts...
and beyond.

And linking with Laura...because looking for God in all the small places has been
one big long playdate!

{And thank you, friends, for grace today as I depart from the Hear It, Use It theme. Sunday was a crazy day of work events and soccer games and choir concerts...leaving little time to write!}

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