Saturday afternoon we returned from seeing old friends, enjoying the beautiful Adirondacks and making some new memories with some dear friends. It was wonderful. I think I might do a ‘Top 10’ of our vacation, but wanted to share this experience with you first.
Through a couple of women, that I greatly respect, I was encouraged to read ‘One Thousand Gifts’ by Ann Voskamp. I am so thankful for these people in my life, as reading this book is doing wonderful things to my perspective. Ann writes SO beautifully. I felt like we were having coffee as she was sharing her life and challenging me to examine my own. (A great review on the book can be found here: One Thousand Gifts) Ann challenges her readers to live life fully RIGHT where they are. That we would be thankful even in the laundry room or over the kitchen sink. This kind of gratitude promises to change your outlook.
Anyways, as I was reading on the dock of our cottage, this happened.
I was listening to the beauty of the moment. A soft song playing, wind blowing, sun shining lightly through the clouds, waters crashing, the slow sway of the dock and I didn’t want to open my eyes. It was one of those moments that you wish you could stay in forever. The kind of moment where I find it so easy to think on my Saviour, to call out to Him and where nothing seems to distract me from that focus. But, I opened them. I just so happened to do so when a motorboat was passing by, complete with jolly, shirtless, older and rather ‘hairy’ men. Talk about an abrupt awakening. I had to laugh and I had to thank. God was in that moment. He was in the ‘serene dock moment’ just as much as He was in the ‘motor boat moment’.
I so badly want to hang on to those 'dock-like' times. Moments like singing together with a body of believers that love Jesus, sitting on a dock with my son, feet dangling over the side and having a ‘little chat’, being surrounded by old friends in sweet fellowship, that only gets sweeter, or eating ice cream or drinking a good cup of coffee with hubby and the list could go on. I’ve often seen the other moments, the ‘not so attractive laundry type moments’ as interruptions to the tranquil moments I love. But, through ‘One Thousand Gifts’, prayer and by His grace, I am beginning to see…He is there too! And when I go to change a diaper or soothe a crying babe or attempt to build a tower of primary coloured blocks for the 20th time only to have my little guy knock it down, He is there!
Prior to my ‘dock’ moment, I was telling Mike that I wasn’t ready to go back to reality. But you know what? I am. I may even be a little excited. Excited to have a new perspective, new trust, new found gratitude for my everyday. Excited to see God in the playroom, the laundry room, the dishes, the dinner hour and yes, even in the whining. He’s there! Did I just not look before? I mean, I've always 'known' He is everywhere. But did I not realize that I can be intimately involved with Him in those places? He’s not just on my ‘mini dock retreat’. I feel like I am merely beginning to scratch the surface of the depths of His love. He is good, all the time. I am so thankful for His grace. He is there and He is here!
