eucharisteo

"gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life & the world."

- sarah ban breathnach

i am starting a list. not any ordinary list. a life altering, time savouring, grace dripping, joy multiplying, glory beholding, love unwrapping list. it is no ordinary list, but it is a list, a recording, a capturing, a denoting, a remembering the ordinary. a list of ordinary. of ordinary moments, pauses in time when God in His kindness fills a life full of good things, beautiful things, things intangible. different than my grocery list, my fix-it list, my honey-do list. different than my list of 100 places i want to see before die. a seeing of wonder from the right now, the right here in my scrubby, little kitchen with the cracked tile. it is a list of one thousand blessings, one thousand gifts, one thousand ways the Lord loves me in the wonder of the everyday ordinary.

i am taking up eucharisteo. eucharisteo, the greek word meaning thanksgiving. as in "He took the bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them..." {luke 22:19} the table of thanksgiving, central symbol to christianity, the key to the mystery of the full life. as He took what would be the symbol of His torn body, just a common loaf of bread, He broke it & gave thanks. funny that it was just common, ordinary bread not the fatted calf or the prize lamb. just plain, old ordinary bread accompanying everyday meals. or is that the point, the ordinary. First Corinthians reads, "whenever you eat this bread and drink the cup". Whenever, as in whenever we eat. like everyday. and so how do i practically pick up this eucharisteo? how do i learn this eucharisteo language? live the eucharisteo life? when the one language i do speak is the language of the fall - discontentment, self-condemnation, never satisfied, an ever searching critical eye? or is it as Paul says "i have learned to be content..." {phil 4:11-12} learned to be thankful whether empty or full. i have so much to learn, so much change, so much to transfigure, to reform. i must do something and yet i don't quite know where to start. Martin Luther is quoted "if you want to change the world, pick up your pen". John Piper said it too "that there are eyes in pencils & pens". and so i will write. i will write one thousand gifts that God has given me.

it is a dare from ann voskamp {one thousand gifts}. a dare to live fully right where i am.

1. fennel tea brewed warm in a pink poka dotted cup

2. three perfect little bottoms hiked up & nestled in amungst swarms of knotted blankies

3. gigantic blossoms of sunshine on my counter on a grey day

4. that perfect little blue pillow that fits just the right space between my belly & the bed