. . . unsure at what age I became aware of the stars in the night sky – their nearly invisible enormity and splendor and ability to make me feel unbelievably small and incredibly significant at the same moment. To dissolve myself in the high, dim-starred sky was to utterly lose myself in God’s Creation!Last night my little Shepard came running down the stairs in a near state of panic to declare:
“Mom! I see the moon. Stars too. God made them!”
We sat together in our pajamas on the back step and admired the vast cosmic existence of God . . . and our tiny little house on the corner of Third and Bergen (. . . and our sandbox and our rock-garden and our bikes and our political yard signs and the neighbor’s swing-set and. . . )
I think the child “gets” it!
I’m guessing I must have been about four when I became aware of the stars.
Shepard is four.
Being thankful is fairly easy once you experience the awareness of our very small existence within God's immense Creation. (You know – the sandbox and the bikes and the swing-set. . . )
Thankfulness just moves ever-so slightly away from that connectedness with Creation and into thoughtfulness in terms of individual things and giver, gift, receiver.
I am thankful today for my children. They teach me everyday how very little I really know and how very little I comprehend outside my too-often logical and academic little head.
I am thankful for Autumn – it is my favorite season of the year.
I think the child “gets” it!
I’m guessing I must have been about four when I became aware of the stars.
Shepard is four.
Being thankful is fairly easy once you experience the awareness of our very small existence within God's immense Creation. (You know – the sandbox and the bikes and the swing-set. . . )
Thankfulness just moves ever-so slightly away from that connectedness with Creation and into thoughtfulness in terms of individual things and giver, gift, receiver.
I am thankful today for my children. They teach me everyday how very little I really know and how very little I comprehend outside my too-often logical and academic little head.
I am thankful for Autumn – it is my favorite season of the year.
And because nowhere in Scripture can you find mention that we are to give thanks for only the things in our life that have reflective and profound meaning, here's my list of negligible thankfulness . . .
-- The smell of crayons
-- The smell of crayons
-- Dental Floss
-- Junior Mints ®
-- All the students from Liberty University who landed on my blog this week whilst researching “Submission in Marriage”. (If everyone who actually read what the Bible has to say on this topic [men too!] . . . lived it? – WOW! The world would be a better place!)
-- My German ancestry. Makes being married to a German less annoying.
-- The fact that the entire globe is in financial crisis. (Makes it harder to blame the entire thing on President Bush and John McCain.)
. . . . and the sandbox and the bikes and the yard signs and the swing-set and the . . .
Esthermay Bentley-Goossen
22 comments:
This was lovely sweet one.
Dear Friend - You make me laugh! You always did. Landed on your Election Thoughts page searching for "Voter Registration" on Google. AMAZING! Small world. I see you are still writing and making people smile and stop to think and think and think and reflect and then read it all over again. God Bless 'ya!
I'll vote for your site!
good morning...thanks for the reminder to be thankful. i need it every day it seems. my husband is employed bt a major brokerage house and we are getting through this with prayer and remembering that we put our faith in God not riches. we have so much to be thankful for...
I'm so glad junior mints made the list! tee hee
What a beautiful thankful heart you have! I enjoyed reading your TT post today! Blessings to you!
In the big and the small - we need to be thankful for it all! Awesome post!
What a great post! I so needed to read this today and be thankful.....we are experiencing a very difficult and painful time in our church and this refocused my thinking today....thank you friend!
What a lovely post -- and thanks for the reminder to be thankful for the "small things" too -- like the smell of a freshly opened container of Play-Doh (one of my all-time fave smells) or the simple joy of coloring in a coloring book! God bless!
Praise the Lord for all things great and small! I enjoyed your post, Esthermay. Happy Thankful Thursday!
Oh, girl, you make me laugh and at the same time give me that little squeeze on my heart that tells me I'm hearing from the Lord through one of His servants.
Thank you.
P.S. One night on a mountain in Utah, Mr. Amazing and I laid in the back of our little truck on sleeping bags gazing into the sky. At 8000 feet above sea level, we could almost dip our fingers in the Milky Way. And...without any man-made distractions (streetlights) to dim our eyes' ability to see clearly...we watched man-made satellites loop the earth...and stars shooting all over the sky. Pretty great stuff!!
Oh what a powerful thing that would be in deed. If the world actually read the bible and listen to God on submission. I gave a talk about that this year at our women's retreat. Not on wives either - as most have heard the what the bible says on wives submit yourselves to your husbands - but on without submitting our lives to God it is impossible to ever submit fully to our spouse and it will never be joyful without God leading the way!
Oh to be thankful for dental floss. Can I get an AMEN on that one!
Blessings to you today and wishing upon those same stars with our many blessings given to us by The ONE who put them all there!
In His amazing grace,
Jill
I love to look at the stars and am amazed that the God who put them in the sky loves and cares about me. He has created amazing beauty and it's so important to be thankful for it.
Being thankful is fairly easy once you experience the awareness of our very small existence within God's immense Creation.
Very nice...and that is what/how I feel everytime I look up to the stars in heaven...I am just a dust in the universe...yet God loves me...
Have a blessed Thursday!
spending some time with the children could make us thankful more. They could see anything as a gift easily and that makes them special.
have a great day!
I loved your list. I love smells and stars and children and crayons and more.
Thanks for sharing! And thank you for your sweet visit this week.
Nice to meet you!
Tiffany
What a great TT post. I am so happy you visited my page, so I would in turn visit with you and receive such a blessing from your writings. I trust it would be ok to add you to my favorite's list on my blog page. I will certainly be back often to enjoy your works.
~blessings
Nichole
What a precious memory was created last night as you and your son watched the stars and talked about their creator, our Savior! Truly a thankful moment.
Lol, I too love the smell of crayons, funny thing to think of isn't it, lol. I hadn't thought about that since my elementary days and then I remembered how I loved that smell :)
Great thankful list!
Great thankful list! I like the smell of junior mints too. Fresh crayons just out of the box just itching for you to use in coloring. Oh how I miss those days. I may have to invite my neices over so I will have an excuse to get the orayons out.
Thanks for sharing,
Darlene
I came here from the Cafe'
I too am a home school mom. I'm in my 17th year.
I too love what Papa God teaches me through my children. There are lessons all around me...
I share my pictures of God on my blog...He has ruined me for the ordinary.
It's nice to meet you!
Julie
Loved your thankful heart and really enjoyed visiting your page. I appreciate you stopping by and leaving me a comment on my post today on TT. -Blessings.
Loved this post! Especially your sweet child's comment about the moon and stars.
Have a blessed weekend.
Thanks for stopping by today, and I enjoyed visiting your blog as well :)
i love the smell of crayons esp. the brand crayola. i used that most of my life in school. whenever my nephews use crayola and i smell it, it reminds me of my happy childhood. God bless you, esther. ♥
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