April 7, 2012: The Gift of Community

3 gifts waited for:

• my son coming home to celebrate Easter with us.
• my second reading of One Thousand Gifts. I've been wanting to reread it and to talk it over in community. Discussion starts next week with my Bible study group!
• my husband did a painting job today that was one of the last items on our house "to do" list.

April 6, 2012: A Framework for Love

3 gifts nailed together:

• a small table that stands in my front entryway.  Its purpose to house mail in a drawer and a bowl to hold keys.  A gift of love last Christmas, chosen by my daughter who found it and knew it was just what I had been wanting.

• a wooden cross, a visceral reminder in church tonight as I ponder anew the passion story, his sacrifice for me.
• canvases placed around the church tonight, framework for testimonies of thanksgiving to God for his hesed, his loving faithfulness which constantly pursues and relentlessly woos.

April 5, 2012: A Cup of Grace

3 gifts at 11am, 2pm, 6pm:

• a cup of tea at my desk, made tastier by the fact that the tea bags were a gift from a friend.
• one of the officers stopping into the church, saving me a phone call asking someone to come in to sign accounts payable checks.
• grace from my husband when dinner was blandly mediocre after an extremely busy day at work.

April 4, 2012: The Ultimate Gift

3 gifts in his Word:

• This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations. Luke 25:46-47
• For it is by grace  you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2:8-9
• Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.  1 Peter 1:3-4
  

April 3, 2012: I Love Surprises :)

3 gifts surprisingly found:

• a bunch of daffodils from my husband
• time to finish a scrapbook I've been working on for months
• a fun (free) new game for my touchpad

April 2, 2012: The Gift of Fortitude

3 gifts white:

• onions and garbanzo beans in the soup I made for dinner.  A new recipe I tried for Tuscan Vegetable Soup.  Chock-full of veggies of all colors, we rated it a 10.
• two little ceramic rabbits from my Grandma that I've had for many years.
• beautiful blossoms on our apple tree.  My husband cut most of the tree down but didn't quite finish the job yet.  That little stump of a tree blossomed anyway.  I guess it didn't know that it's destined for the trash heap. That's fortitude, beauty from ashes.

April 1, 2012: The Gift of the Earth

3 gifts round:

• drums.  I love the rhythm of the drums in the band at church during worship.
• my tape runner.  Spent some time scrapbooking this afternoon and sure am glad to have such a handy tool.
• the earth.  What an amazing gift, created just for us by the Master Artist, a place of beauty and wonder. The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.