Thankful-Grace-Joy

Hello

I am recovering from a bout of the flu and so I am bound to my chaise lounge these past four days. Only an occasional trip to the kitchen for some tea, to bed to nap and back to the chaise to read have been my explorations this week. I am still bound to the chaise as I write this but feeling better enough to do some writing, so I am on the mend. It always amazes me the blessings I find in every circumstance. The past few days my body has needed repair but my soul even more...  with my body weak my soul is made strong by being nourished with Word. I rarely make time to sit and read, I usually am in the studio with ear phones on or the cd player going. It usually is a favorite message or inspirational word that is playing. But my mind is fixed on the task at hand with occasional  stops to fully digest what I am listening to. 

 Today however, I am absorbed in renewing the mind and spirit. It takes my body to be immobilized sometimes to nourish what really is needed... and for that I am thankful.

It snowed earlier this week and I managed to snap a few shots with my new camera, that I am still getting acquainted with.

I hope you find beauty in this...

All quotes that are not marked are from  One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp

One act of thanksgiving when things go wrong with us, is worth a thousand thanks when things are agreeable to our inclinations.

Saint John of Avila

I have to seek God beauty. Because isn't my internal circuitry wired to seek out something worthy of worship? Every moment I live, I live bowed to something. And if I don't see God, I'll bow down before something else.

And whether I am conscious of it or not, any created thing of which I am amazed, it is the glimpse of His face to which I bow down. Do I have eyes to see it's Him and not the thing?

And now this--that faith is not a once-in-the-past action, but faith is always a way of seeing, a seeking for God in everything. And if the eyes gaze long enough to see God lifted in a thing, how can the lips not offer thanks. The truly saved have eyes of faith and lips of thanks. Faith is in the gaze of a soul.

Moses who, "kept right on going because he kept his eyes on the one who is invisible." (Hebrews 11:27)

That is what makes us persevere through life, to see Him who is invisible. It is my prayer, O Lord, open the eyes of my heart, the eyes of my hands, the eyes of my mouth, the eyes of my feet... I long to live all eyes.

"And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them..." (Luke 22:19)  The Greek word here for thanks is "eucharisteo"
The root word of eucharisteo is Charis, meaning "grace". Jesus took the bread and saw it as grace and gave thanks. He took it as a gift.

But there is more, Eucharisteo, thanksgiving, envelopes the Greek word for grace, charis. But it also holds the derivative, the Greek word Chara, meaning "joy".

Deep chara joy is found only at the table of the eucharisteo--the table of thanksgiving.

"Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world." (Sarah ban Breathnach)

The only way to see God manifested in the world around us is with the eyes of Jesus within.

To sit in the theater of God and see His glory crack the dark, to open the eyes of my heart to see the fountain of His grace--thousands of gifts--I have to split heart open to more and more of Jesus.

"Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart..."

I ache-gaze on bits and blades of creation and all things created fade, diminish, and only the features of the creator shimmer, magnified. My eyes see through to Him.


Blessings,
Rebecca