Today as I sip my morning vanilla-Carmel tea that Jennifer bought me, I had a thought. . . She knows of my affinity for tea. So when she is at the store, and sees a flavor that sounds appealing to her, she buys it for me. It is a lovely blessing to find a new, unexpected, box of tea on the counter waiting for me. As I sip that tea, my mind is lingering on the idea of gratitude. Each sip making me feel blessed as I remembered what I wanted to share with you.
This feeling of gratitude comes from 2 recent instances. . .
The first occurred last night. Jennifer and I have been worried for some time that a maple tree near Plains Church Road would crack, and fall into the road hitting the power lines. The inside of the tree has a dead spot in it that measures almost 3 feet in length and a foot in diameter. It is a big hole in the tree. This tree still produces leaves, but the hole grows bigger each year significantly—and so does our anxiety. So, sadly the tree had to come down before it fell down and, as I said, struck either the power lines, or just blocked the road.
The now down tree laid in our yard all of Sunday afternoon as we left to run errands. After supper, Jennifer asked if we could work to clean up the down tree. It would be a lot of work, but it was work we could do. Without any prodding, JonMark and Emma changed their clothes and met us outside. JonMark on his chainsaw. Emma carrying branches and driving my truck (she was supervised in this) with those branches over to the woods. Jennifer and I carried, pulled, stacked, and raked the yard.
The four of us worked for about 2 hours—which was how long we had until dark. Never complaining. Never winning. Not even wanting to stop for a drink. No moaning when the chainsaw slipped off the bar, or when the branches fell off the truck a bit earlier than expected. We just worked. . . I felt a sense of gratitude for their hardworking nature.
The second occurrence then, which is related to this first story, came when I read my devotional book for the day and remembered that evening’s work. The Rev. Dr. Samuel Wells’ wrote:
“Gratitude is the moment we turn from seeing dependence as a burden and begin to see it as a gift. Gratitude is the window we are given into how dependence creates relationship.”
His words echoed in my mind as I sip my tea and thank God for evening’s events. Even as we stacked the fire wood by a tree in our backyard, there was no complaining. No petitions to stop. Just a resolute determination to keep working hard in the headlights of my truck. We were a family. Even as Jennifer and I ‘fell’ into bed, we were so proud of our children. We knew we would be sore in the morning. But gratitude flavored how we remembered the evening.
And so, as we begin another week, or another grinding time, I wonder where you might find room today to see dependence as a gift and therefore give God praise?
Blessings
Rev. Derek
No comments:
Post a Comment