His Gifts

My two sons and I noticed it on the drive to their school this morning:

In the pinking eastern sky, a row of round, gray clouds, strung out like islands in the sea. Perfectly centered between two of these clouds, like a gem set by a jeweler, a bright star still holding its own as night faded away.

This unique and beautiful sight was fleeting, as the movement of both the clouds and our car almost immediately threw the star off center, and then obscured it completely, losing the perfect alignment that had fascinated us for a moment.

Lord, let me remember this sight for years to come, as it's not often a parent and kids share a moment of common awe.

It's also rare for a parent and kids to share a common observation from such a moment.

So, how cool was it that we noted together how those two clouds and that star have no awareness of each other, share no common space, really have nothing to do with one another, other than both existing in God's creation, yet wove themselves together so perfectly for just that instant, just from our perspective and from nowhere else in the universe, to create a picture we never would have imagined?

Could we learn to love our Maker more this way?

Could we bask more richly in the beauty of God's blessings by weaving together different combinations of His many gifts, to view from this perspective and that, wondering at how He gives and gives and gives, and at the way one of His gifts seasons another in a way we had never noticed before, though the gifts arrived at different times, in different places, and, we thought, had nothing whatsoever to do with each other?

How often do we perceive our woes this way?

How much more dreadful our fears when complemented by this thorn, that claw, that trauma, those disappointed expectations, our broken hearts? How much more bitter our regrets when framed within those unfulfilled dreams, even though none of these pains ever existed in the same time and space in our lives?

Our hurts have a way of becoming more than the sum of their parts, while His gifts, when we fail to count them, can easily seem scattered and isolated.

Father, show us Your gifts again. Let us see them in new ways, in new combinations and arrangements. Let one cast light on another, making it sparkle in a new way, even if just for a moment, and let us rejoice in the sight and love You, simply for who You are, and because You love us.

In Your Spirit, give us the wisdom to carefully take apart the fearful arrangement of our hurts, forcing each one to exist on its own and be laid at the foot of Your Son's cross.

Amen.