Eucharisteo

Recently a dear friend challenged me, unknowingly I believe, to stop and take a look, a close look at this life of "mine."  She sent me a book.  And then I understood more fully her numbering-gifts blog posts.  One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp is opening my eyes to see what it means to live fully today, this day that I have been given.  The word she shares in her book, that I have adopted, that Patrick painted a wall in our stairwell for, that Micaiah scripted across the fresh green chalkboard paint ... Eucharisteo.  Giving Thanks.  Later I read R.C. Sproul, Jr. reminding me how Paul "reminds us that we have nothing that was not first given to us."  Another exhortation to live a life of thanks-giving.  So just over three weeks ago, I picked up the pen and began my own list - numbering the gifts that my Creator has lavished upon me, day by day.

As the sun sets on this day, I am thankful that God started me on this gratitude journey.  After an early drive to St. Hedwig's Hospital in Regensburg, after kissing our youngest boy before they wheeled him into the operating room, after sitting for over two hours in the recovery room waiting for signs that he was waking back up to our world, after receiving a good report from the doctor as she examined him a few hours later, after the drive home along Autobahn and then winding country roads, after settling him in the guest room near the bathroom but far from his older brother roommate, after calling the grandmas with assurances that all went well, after numbering gifts #124 - #128, I am most thankful for God-given eyes to see that He was present in every moment of this gift of today.  Just as He always is.  Eucharisteo.