Gratitude

Today we worshipped at Grace North Shore for our third Sunday, and it, like lots of things, seemed more familiar and comfortable.  I took my camera to catch a photo to share with you some pictures of the church but, alas, my batteries were dead.  Jason participated in leading worship today, and he made a passing comment before the Confession of Sin which has simmered in my head all day.  He asked us to think about gratitude- how sometimes we think we deserve things and in our entitled ingratitude we rob the giver of the joy of giving.  We often do this with God, demanding from Him what we think we deserve with hearts that are irritable and blind to the Giver.  This, piggy backing on a great sermon Stuart preached about joy and contentment last Sunday, reminds me today of how much there is for which to be thankful.

Our home is a wonderful space that with each day feels more like ours.  It is funny how a space that feels so strange and "still like someone else's house" (as Eleanor put it the other night) begins to feel more familiar just by the living in it until one evening while sliding a dish into the dishwasher you feel that sense of 'home' wash over you.  I am so thankful for my family, for Jason, who even with a painfully injured back has been so peaceful and content.  I am thankful for my girls who are rolling with all these changes like old pros.  They are already enjoying the benefits of living on the North Shore as they bounce from the lake, to the amazing local public pool (complete with four water slides and fountains), to their gymnastics camp.  I am thankful for a great church that I am only beginning to know. I am thankful for family and friends who have been so supportive.  The list can go on.... I ran along the lake down to Northwestern University with Roscoe this evening, rounded a corner, and saw the city skyline almost floating out on the lake.  An unbelievable sense of gratitude washed over me.   I guess that is part of the joy of worship...realizing that in our precious gifts is the Giver.