"One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple." Psalm 27:4 (NIV)
We had another amazing night at book club last night! I have to admit I am sad that we are already half way through the book. As one of our participants said, it feels as though we have to do the book over again to really get this discipline deep down in our souls. And it's true. There is so much to this book that I would encourage you to take the time to read it through again if you get a chance. I found that I got SO much more out of it when I took the time to read it again and I even found sometimes that reading ALOUD was very helpful as well. Ann's writing style can be a little hard at times... to fully comprehend, so that is just a way I found works really well to really absorb what's she's trying to communicate.
Please know that we are PRAYING for each and every one of you all the time! We are SUPER excited for this book club - and too, for those of you who are joining us online - we are THRILLED to have you! We are praying that God would reveal Himself to you through the pages of this brilliant book, One Thousand Gifts.
This week we reviewed Chapter six, What Do You Want? The Place of Seeing God. This was the story about the moon! On page 102, Ann's sweet husband, who understands her souls desire for finding beauty... for counting gifts (she had already been naming gifts for many months at this point and had passed 1,000), tells her, "You will want to see this."
In the rushing and chaos of her day - he interrupts her softly, inviting her to see something he KNOWS she won't want to miss. THE MOON. But for a moment, in her rush to put food for 8 on the table, she finds herself slightly irritated. Not at him, so much, as the disturbance of the rushing.
And for a moment I am Ann. And I can feel the irritation. I've been distracted... disturbed... momentarily by something that takes me away from the concentration that "the thing" is begging from me... and I can feel the same frustrations in myself.
But he... the husband... who knows the woman counting graces would be so hurt to have missed the opportunity to SEE this... THE MOON! "The moon rounds immense, incandescent globe grazing ours." (page 105)
But then again, it's just a moon. We'll see another. Or will we?
But then again, it's just a moon. We've seen one before. Or have we?
SEEING the moon THAT night was as if she were FINALLY seeing with eyes wide open.
Surely there had been another moon so... so magnificant before... but where had she been? Sleeping the whole time? And HOW had she missed such beauty... beauty that was RIGHT in front of her?
And yet aren't we that way?
Don't we notice beauty around us - but truly fail to SEE the beauty in it? The God-beauty?
On page 107 she speaks of Jacob, waking from sleep before full moon rising, "Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, 'Surely the Lord is in this place, and I wasn't even aware of it!'" (Genesis 28:16-17).
Isn't Jacob's words, our words? SURELY the Lord is in THIS place, and I wasn't even AWARE of it!
Surely I have been a witness to some beautiful sun rises... but did I fail to notice that the Lord was in it?
Surely I have seen the birth of my child... but did I fail to SEE that the Lord was there too?
And what about in the trees, or in rain, or in the falling leaves or the sunset or the ocean?
Are we really, truly choosing to SEE with eyes wide open?
"The only place we have to come before we die is the place of seeing God." (page 108)
Of SEEING God.
That's it!
I want to SEE God. In everything.
In the good. In the ordinary. In the spectacular. In the pain. In the suffering. In the light. And the dark.
I want to SEE God.
Because God is good and I am always loved.
Always.
I want to be paying attention.
On page 111 Ann writes, "I pay tribute to God by paying attention."
I want to be paying attention. I don't want to MISS it!
Because what if THIS is the last moon I will be able to SEE with these human eyes?
What if?
And Ann beckons us to ask the question of ourselves. The one she's wrestled with herself...
If I can see God in the beauty, can I, too, then, go back into the chaos of my life and find beauty THERE?
Can I see God HERE? And in turn can I find JOY here too?
Because joy can be found where God is found... so can I find God here? In the mess I've made? In the pain I've suffered? In my frailty and weakness?
God CAN be there too!
She closes the chapter with this on pages 120 and 121...
"The world I live in is loud and blurring and toilets plug and I get speeding tickets and the dog gets sick all over the back step and I forget everything and these six kids lean hard into me all day to teach and raise and lead and I fail hard and there are real souls that are at stake and how long do I really have to figure out how to live full of grace, full of joy - before these six beautiful children fly the coop and my mothering days fold up quiet? How do you open the eyes to see how to take the daily, domestic, workday vortex and invert it into the dome of an everyday cathedral? Could I go back to my life and pray with eyes wide open? Praying with eyes wide open is the only way to pray without ceasing."
Can we see... and count gifts (praying)... with eyes wide open?
Will you choose to SEE the amazing gifts He gives?
Because, truly, they are ALL around us!
Let's choose to SEE them together!
Praying for you!
Below is the video from week six. (Remember to scroll to the bottom of the blog to pause the music from my playlist in order to hear this video.)
One Thousand Gifts: Chapter 6 from Bloom (in)courage on Vimeo.
Finding JOY in the JOurneY,
www.wendybender.blogspot.com
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