Marvelous things without number

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Job 5: 1-27

TO CHEW ON: "But as for me, I would seek God,

And to God I would commit my cause

who does great things and unsearchable

Marvelous things without number." Job 5:8,9

Ann Voskamp's little sister died in a tragic accident when Ann was only four. That incident dyed her life's outlook so that even after she had her own six beautiful children, she lived in the night of mistrust. She writes in her memoir One Thousand Gifts:

"The fruit's poison has infected the whole of humanity. Me. I say no to what He's given. I thirst for some roborant, some elixir to relieve the anguish of what I've believed: God isn't good. God doesn't love me.


If I'm ruthlessly honest, I may have said yes to God, yes to Christianity, but really, I have lived the no. Infected by that Eden mouthful, the retina of my soul develops macular holes of blackness. From my own beginning, my sister's death tears a hole in the canvas of the world" -  One Thousand Gifts, Kindle Location (KL) 139.

Job, whom Eliphaz is addressing in today's reading, had every reason to be skittish around God too after the series of calamities that pounded him. Though not all of Elphaz's advice is worth following, his admonish to Job to shift his focus to God's doings of "great things and unsearchable" is good.

That's what rescued Ann. A friend's challenge to her to identify, name, and list one thousand things for which she was grateful — in other words, to start noticing God's good gifts — outfitted her with a whole new set of life lenses.

I personally have joined Ann's "Gratitude Community." We share each Monday, at her A Holy Experience blog, our lists of gifts from the past seven days. The clincher for me was finally "seeing" the reference to thanksgiving in even my own life verse:

Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God...- Philippians 4:6,7.

Why don't you try it? Today, instead of focusing on worries and what ifs, on aches and pains, on dour predictions and dark expectations, turn the tapestry of your life around and study it for blessings. You may find, with Ann:

"The act of naming grace moments, this list of God's gifts, moves beyond the shopping list variety of prayer and into the other side. The other side of prayer, the interior of His throne room, the inner walls of His powerful love-beating heart. The list is God's list, the pulse of His love — the love that thrums on the other side of our prayers. And I see for now what it really is, this dare to write down one thousand things I love. It really is a dare to name all the ways God loves me. The true Love Dare. To move into His presence and listen to His love unending and uncontainable. This is the vault of miracles - One Thousand Gifts, KL 780 (emphasis added).

PRAYER: Dear God, help me, today, to catch that "love that thrums on the other side of my prayers." I want to live with my eyes open to your "marvelous things without number" today. Amen.

MORE: #1

The book trailer to One Thousand Gifts is more than just an advert for a great book. Watch it (below), then count it as #1 on your own list of 1000 gifts.