Gratitude Snuck Up on Me

So gratitude snuck up on me the last few days.  It started sneaking up when I was wrestling with my sermon for Sunday around the story of the Israelites crossing over from their wanderings in the desert into the Promised Land (Joshua 3 & 4).  I did not expect earlier in the week to come to a message centered on gratitude but that’s how it emerged from a walk on Thursday morning.  That walk began by seeing an older couple returning to their car early that morning as they were clearly the first ones out.  It is a couple I have seen many times and the woman is in a wheelchair and her husband pushes the wheelchair around the paved loop pretty much regardless of the weather.  I wrote about them three years ago here .  But there they were at about 6:15am heading back to their car as I was just pulling in.  Here’s a photo from that post three years ago. The tracks from the wheelchair and his footprints in the snow. Just beautiful.

The rest of that walk seemed to just have other gratitudes appearing - the “hand tree” that I love so much, barely noticeable wisps of fog, and a host of other things.  And woven in between those moments was the emergence of my message for Sunday.

Since then, there have been several more moments that have emerged.  That night was simply sitting for about 25 minutes with Scout taking in the sunset.  Here’s the full video of it (if you want to sit through 25 minutes) and below is the same sped up to 1 minute (do note the duck at about the 55 second mark).

It wasn’t the most “glorious” sunset but it was simply a period of stillness and listening to the sounds of nature around and the sounds of life going by.  There was a family down on the banks of the lake fishing and loudly and joyfully celebrating each fish they pulled in.  There were people walking behind Scout and I with kids in strollers and people who asked to pet Scout.  I heard at least 3 different languages spoken by people going by and people and families of all different kinds.  You can hear them in the full-length video.  It was beautiful. Here’s what the sky looked like as we were walking back to the car. Felt like I was looking at an oil painting in the sky.

Friday was a similar day of gratitude that ended with Amy and I watching The Boys in the Boat, a really wonderful movie.  And then this morning  spoke to me of gratitude for this beautiful creation that we have all around us.  I photographed this waterfall at Sharon Woods (that I’ve photographed before) but just loved the way that the reflection bends in the smooth water, it all mixes together as the water falls over and then rushes in foamy white down the remainder of the waterfall.

But then there was the same waterfall from a bridge that made the creek look like an infinity pool.  It was glorious.

So, even with what is still a daily gratitude practice for me, Gratitude can still sneak up.  If you want to take in my message tomorrow, you’ll find it on YouTube tomorrow morning here.

Here are a few other photos from the last few days as well and a short video of Scout being Scout.

The first photo is one of those mega-panoramas made up of about 30 photos - the sunrise was way too big to be seen in just one photo

What gratitudes have emerged for you?

Grace, Peace, Love, and Joy,
Ed

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