Good Gifts

When Luke and I decided to get married, I knew we'd do a lot of traveling together. There was a sort of whisper in my ear that told me I'd see the world with him. He's taken me to Australia several times (is this my fifth trip?) and all over Europe, too. In the next five months, we'll go to Australia, Paris, all over France, Belgium, The Netherlands, London and all over England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and if we're feeling particularly restless(!), we may head out for a couple days in Barcelona over our lovely Christmas holiday at La Maisonette. Next year, we'll visit my brother and his family in Florence. There are benefits to being married to a professor who teaches the history of civilization through the lens of the humanities, and free travel to marvelous locations is chief among them.

Yesterday, near the end of my very long day of frenzied cleaning and packing and doing, I was alone in my kitchen. I'd had Sara Groves' "Open My Hands" on repeat for, oh, four hours or so. Suddenly, I started crying (there's some exhaustion in that mix, no question). I heard, again, a whisper in my ear. There are so many things to struggle with, so many things to work on, so many things to reconcile and make peace with and overcome -- the purpose and work of life. But God withholds no good thing from us. Man does -- but God doesn't. Many of those Good Things require an awful lot of hard work; everything worth having is worth working for. Even grace and salvation require a good faith effort to show gratitude for and worthiness of the gift. Often, there's a difficulty in understanding the difference between God's will and "man's won't." But God never says that we can't have something wonderful, that the Good Gifts are for others but not for us. I don't know why this particular something wonderful -- seeing the world together, all of us, sharing time and experiences -- is for us, right now. I don't know why the Lord so easily and immediately poured out this particular blessing on us. It doesn't come without a price -- my perfect job, for example, was sacrificed on this altar -- but it's a Good Gift that's on offer. 

I will open my hands, will open my heart -- I am nodding my head an emphatic yes to all that You have for me. Thanks, Lord.