The Gift

Do we know the gift we have been given? Life, love, beauty. I  want to write about my gratitude for that. Often, as I look at the World around me and the seeming unfairness of it all, I could be discouraged that there isn't more I can do. Sometimes, I wish for wealth so that I could give to those who do not have. But, I am beginning to realize that wealth is not necessarily a gift or something to really be desired.

I have been reading a book called Soul Survivor by Philip Yancey. In it, are 13 short biographies of people who helped, in one way or another, to restore the waning faith of the author. One of these men was Leo Tolstoy. A famous Russian author who wrote such books as War and Peace and Anna Karenina. No, I've never read them, they are both very long and are not really my type of books. I have read several of his short stories such as Where love is, there is God. -by going to the link you can read it online.- It is a short little story of a poor shoemaker who has lost his family. One day he hears a voice tell him that Christ will visit him tomorrow, but is surprised to see it happen in a different way than he expected. I recommend reading it. Great story.
One of the lessons that Leo Tolstoy seems to have found in his quest in this life, was that money could not buy peace, contentment or even lasting happiness. He wrote several stories of Russian peasants who had found this elusive peace. It hadn't been brought about by wealth and material things.

Another chapter in Phillip Yancey's book was on a Harvard Professor named Robert Coles. He was also a child psychiatrist who wrote a series of books called children of crisis. In this series he interviewed ordinary people and often children. He was trying to gain an honest perspective of how people lived. In the first four books he focused on poor people or those who wouldn't be considered wealthy. The final volume called The Privileged Ones is about the rich and well off in America.
His conclusions are similar to what Leo Tolstoy found. Money does not buy us happiness. That those who were lacking in material things were by far happier and better adjusted to life. One of the reasons he felt this was so, (and this point is often ignored by his peers) was their faith. Many of the people who lacked wealth, that he interviewed, had faith in God and often pointed to Him as the reason for their peace.

As I was reading these biographies a verse from Proverbs came to mind. ~...give me neither poverty nor riches...lest I be full and deny Thee and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain. Pr. 30:8-9~
It seems, to me, that in our society, as more and more people gain in material wealth, they turn away from God. As if they do not need Him. Those who have just enough to get by, know that they do indeed, need Him and turn to Him for their source of security. In Him, they find peace.....

As I look at my life and the things that I do have, I become more and more grateful for the life that He has given me. We have never had a lot. Certainly, more than many in this world. Honestly, though, it has always been just enough. Never more, never less. We have always known, Who provided that. We have found peace in that. Things would get tight and we would worry. But in the end, it would always be enough and we wondered why we had gotten so uptight about it.

So, as I mull all these thoughts around, I look around and see such wonderful gifts. I find them all around me. In the little House Wren that sat on a fence post just last evening, singing his cheery little song, as if it were  for me alone. The Indigo Bunting that came and showed off his brilliant blue feathers to us, nearly every day for several weeks. In the amazing green and growing things I am surrounded by and so desire to learn more about. In that very knowledge of them, He has allowed me to gain.

We love where we live. The four seasons are perfectly spaced, each with 3 months of their own. Even now, as I write this, I feel fall in the air, slowly inching it's way into summer. God has given us a piece of his Earth. I watch the trees, flowers, birds and even the insects and am filled with gratitude for His over abundance.

I look at my family and how much they care for one another and for Tim and I. I look at my smiling grandchildren as they reach out their arms for a hug from gramma. My heart is filled and overflowing, with no empty spaces.

I hear his voice bring me comfort as He speaks through the Psalms of David. I think of the Shepherd boy  and once king of Israel, that wrote them from the depths of his heart. A man, not so different from us. A man, who had learned to find his peace, in God his Father. He found that peace, while watching his father's sheep in the wilderness. The words written so long ago, are still so fitting for our lives today. I find so much comfort and understanding in this book.  reading schedule of Psalms I often follow

I am overwhelmed with all that He has given us. It is a Gift.

~ Either we are adrift in Chaos, or we are individuals, created, loved, upheld and placed purposefully,   exactly where we are. Can you believe that? Can you trust God for that? ~ Elizabeth Elliot