{36} Thank God for retreat: the chance to pull away from the day to day anxieties and say, at least for a while, "Later. Today, God willing, shall be a day of rest."
{37} Thank you for uncontrollable amusement—the times it is all so funny we simply cannot stop laughing. That unstoppable, bubbling force reminds me of so many dear things, not least of them the days of jumping on mattresses and not wanting to go to bed, when Father's warm arms embraced children squealing with laughter. There was always a particular gleam in his eye, when he gave his own rather childish grin.
"Uh-oh. Someone's giggle box got opened."
{38} For the curvy, criss-crossed natured of our lives—how we are doomed to not always walk alongside family and friends as we may like, but that the intersections of our life paths are so much the dearer for that: a precious chance to reminisce, re-acquaint, and swap stories of our own individual adventures.
{39} Thank You, Elyon, for a family saturated in Your Love, a church made up of kin, sharpening each other with familial love in its highest form: strengthened by Agape.
{40} For the feeling of riding on water—no matter the vessel—and how climbing into a boat and taking up an oar always feels like the start of an adventure.
{41} Thank You, God, that, in the words of Madeleine L'Engle:
"The great artists keep us from frozenness, from smugness, from thinking that the truth is in us, rather than in God, in Christ our Lord. They help us to know that we are often closer to God in our doubts than in our certainties, that it is all right to be like the small child, who constantly asks: Why? Why? Why?"*
{42} Praise God for things to look forward to—times when we can feel like children again, asking ourselves even though we already know the answer: "Is it time yet?"
*This quote is another from the delightful Madeleine L'Engle book I've been slowly savoring my way through: Walking on Water .
lovely :)
ReplyDelete