gift

If my husband has said it once, he’s said it, sung it, preached it, and prayed it a hundred times: everything is a gift from God!  Every day, every sunset, every meal, every piece of bread, every flower, every tree, every sweet orange, every can of beans in your cupboard.  Gift, gift, gift.  

When you open the refrigerator, can you see that little red bow tied around every gallon of milk, every egg, every stick of butter, every green pepper?  Once you begin to see it, you’re close.  For the truth is, every one of those things is a gift straight out of the heart of God.  Our task is to find ways to remember this simple fact, to remind each other of it, and so learn - again and again - to see, and feel, and truly receive. 

So, in honor of my husband, we’re calling the whole SALT community to send us images, poems, scripture, essays, and random thoughts about all God’s good gifts around us.  Send anything and everything over to "a thousand words" to help us see the world more clearly, feel it more deeply, receive it more fully for what it really is.  Tokens of God’s generosity.  Rooms and fields and faces chock full of divine gifts.

And once we do, the rest just comes naturally.  We give thanks.  We live in gratitude.

And then we share that abundance.  Gifts abound.

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Thanks for the gift of this English Electric Refrigerator Ad, 1950.