One Thousand Gifts

November… the month of thanksgiving. It was this month three years ago that Ann Voskamp began a list of thanksgiving that has blossomed into a Gratitude Community. This is her beginning:

It is the beginning of the list season: lists of menus, lists of hand-made projects, lists of addresses, lists of baking goodies … lists of gifts.

I too begin… but only, currently, one list: A List of a Thousand Things, beginning with #1. I am daily jotting down items on my Thousand Gifts List, working, one-by-one, up to a thousand gifts. Not of gifts I want. But of gifts I have.

As the moments slip down the hour glass of time, I am scratching down the gifts—just as they happen, as they arrive, as they are unwrapped—that He has given that make my life grace, the daily graces that He gives in an infinite number of ways, that stir me. {emphasis mine}

This idea, this list, seems utterly fitting for me. And so I began (one week ago, to be exact) a list of my own. A list of One Thousand Gifts. That God gives to me. One at a time. To a watchful eye. Its purpose is not so much the list itself, but the watchful eye that sees the gifts and recognizes them as such. Even more, it’s about recognizing the Giver. And worshiping Him through heartfelt gratitude.

This list will be mine alone, different from any other’s, because, as Ann points out, “God has made me uniquely me.” And while I present it here for all who pass through and care to take a glance, it is a very personal reflection of the life God is working out in me.

1. Ann Voskamp for being the spark that ignited this list of gratitude
2. my journal and comfy chair
3. words written on earth below and heard in heaven above
4. a new day with new beginnings
5. sound of school bus bringing son home
6. smell of scented candles each time I descend the stairs
7. son mowing
8. time for writing

9. husband willing to get out of a comfy chair to help me
10. little girl giggles
11. bedtime kisses
12. lying next to my husband
13. ending our day conversing
14. his body twitching as sleep overtakes him
15. the soft tick of the clock in our bathroom
16. that helps me stay on time in the morning
17. falling asleep with thoughts of gratitude

21. that runs almost ten minutes slow when it’s nearly time to rewind it

23. dining table turned bible study center

As my first day of gratitude-seeking came to a close, I wondered how long before it would be tested. Not long at all…the very next morning:

29. miraculous time to clean up, change my clothes, make another one, everything else that had to be done, and still getting her to school on time

I can honestly say that my reaction was different because I was intentially looking for gifts of grace. And so…

42. and giving me this grace four days earlier than expected through my plan to buy one myself

In this season of lists, I invite you to begin a gratitude list of your own. Learn more about the list of One Thousand Gifts here.