So I'm almost all the way through One Thousand Gifts, by Ann Voskamp. And I am just trying to breathe in the truth and the encouragement and the beauty I'm finding on each page.
She writes very poetically and there are some pages where I have to reread to gather all the wonderfulness on the page. I'm highlighting and dog-earring the pages.
Buy it! It's amazing.
A few highlights:
"And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them..." Luke 22:19
In the original language, "he gave thanks" reads eucharisteo.
The root word of eucharisteo is charis, meaning "grace." Jesus took the bread and saw it was grace and gave thanks. He took the bread and knew it to be a gift and gave thanks.....
...the Greek word chara, meaning "joy." Joy. Ah...yes. I might be needing me some of that.
Charis. Grace.
Eucharisteo. Thanksgiving.
Chara. Joy.
Grace, Thanksgiving, joy. Eucharisteo.
A Greek word...that might make the meaning of the everything?
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Non--eucharisteo, ingratitude, was the fall--humanity's discontent with all that God gives freely.That is what has scraped me raw: ungratefulness. Then to find Eden, the abundance of Paradise, I'd need to forsake my non-eucharisteo, my bruised and bloodied ungrateful life, and grab hold of eucharisteo, a lifestyle of thanksgiving.
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Again, always, and always again: eucharisteo precedes the miracle.
Ann shares how in the Bible "giving thanks" always preceds the miracle. Jesus gave thanks and then Lazuraus was raised from the dead. Jesus gave thanks and then the bread was multiplied for the thousands.
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There are so many wonderful elements of this book, I just can't explain it all. But I guess I should explain why it's called One Thousand Gifts. Bascially, Ann took on a challenge to write down 1,000 things that she is thankful for. She found it was life-changing to learn the practice of giving thanks. Looking for things all day long to put on her list.
And so I have begun my list. I've been bringing it the car, carrying it to the rooms I am working in. It's already begun to transform my thinking.
Naming the gifts is bringing JOY.
And sometimes naming the ugly-beautiful gifts (as Ann puts it). Like,
#37 Little boy sitting on the bottom step of the stairs in timeout, learning to control his temper, learning the discipline of self control.
#25 Two cups of spilled coffee on the carpet.
I hear Ann's words "eucharisteo always precedes the miracle."
So from time to time you may see me post a # and a gift here on the blog. I'm going to share my list of gifts. Buy the book, get a journal and start listing with me.
