Counting Countless Gifts of Love

(inspiration and graphic from Holy Experience)

Now thank we all our God
With hearts and hands and voices;
Who wondrous things hath done,
In whom this world rejoices.
Who, from our mother's arms,
Hath led us on our way,
With countless gifts of love,
And still is ours today.

241.

(Daughter's name retouched out of photo.

She titled this list: [Her name]'s Blessings.)

Coming home after a long and tiring one day trip out of town,

being led to the family white board by my twelve year old daughter,

and eagerly shown the list of blessings of things she did that day

simply to bless our family

without even being asked.

242.

Sharing memories with my husband,

as we drive by the house where I visited my grandmother

during my childhood years.

It is also the place where I lived my first 4 weeks of life,

when I was cared for by my grandparents

while my grandfather convinced my father to accept me,

the beginning of a long journey of coming to complete acceptance.

Oh, what God has done to redeem that father-daughter relationship!

Only by the grace and almighty power of God

could forgiveness, reconciliation, trust and love blossom in such circumstances.

And, in a way, it began here.

Although I never knew my grandfather

because he died the night of my fourth birthday,

I will ever be grateful to him

and I look forward to telling him that myself in Heaven one day.

243.

(photo from here)

Unexpected roll-on-the-floor laughing-out-loud moments.

What are the odds of this happening at just the right second?

244.

(my photo)

Everyday wonder

all around us

every day.

It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness.

~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon

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