Soft conversation, beautiful faces lit with warm and good food and the joy of a holiday capture my attention wholly.
The table, still sprinkled with fall decor from Sunday lunch the day before, reminds me of my creative sister and her walk in the brush, collecting beautiful leaves and branches and creating an outdoor scene inside the cozy home. It is proof that, if money is short, a family can live well on creativity. And while God has provided for my family beyond comprehension and beyond our immediate needs, he has blessed my parents with a creativity that has created something out of nothing and beauty out of what may originally seem worthless. The sanctuary of our home, the haven my mother created out of second hand furniture, street-side giveaways and 50 cent teacups is a perfect example. God blesses us with the gifts he gives us and the means to utilize them.
I am filled, intoxicated by the flavours, the scents, the feelings of this luxurious life God has given me. How thankful am I? I cannot even say. I am thankful that life is rich with love and gifts and seasons and loved ones and abundant opportunities to share it all. I am thankful that wealth is not found outside of ourselves, in material objects and extravagant living. I am thankful that it is found in the worth we have once Jesus is occupying our hearts, turning us from dark, selfish beings to white, glowing children of God.
And this transformation seeps into every area of our lives, revolutionizing the ordinary to become the extraordinary and it fills us with the deepest satisfaction, the deepest security as we sink further into a God of provision and promises and begin to taste flavours that we could never have imagined - the taste of freedom, the taste of love, the taste of the bread and the wine - the taste of Thankfulness.
