To Give Thanks

The picture at the top of my blog shows well what Dallas has looked like lately. White, cold, barren, blustery. It is beautiful and empty at the same time. It seems like the world has stopped and nothing is occurring. The city is halted, the schools are closed, we can't drive to Target...what is this place coming to??!!! In a place that sports winter weather that bounces from 50-70 degrees, two weeks of true winter is alarming.

So, I wake this morning to sleet and the wind calling loudly that he is back. The snow falls with great determination as if it has a plan. And I realize I am home to stay today. Another day that the option to go out is not an option. So, I ponder...

When all looks frozen and dormant it there still life? Is it true that shortly the earth will thaw and I will begin to see hues of green pushing up through the dirt. Is it true that the sun will rise higher in the sky and provide longer days and warmer air? Yes, it is true. Even when the eye cannot see activity, God is active. Though I do not have eyes to see all of His activity and all of His continuing of life, I know it is true. I know it because no matter how long the winter or how cold the days, the spring has always come and the colors have always returned. Splashes of color all over. But, oh that I would have eyes to see even when life seems hidden.

That has been my new challenge, to see God in everything and to give thanks. To slow down and savor and LOOK to find Him. Where is His love pouring through to me today? Amidst the sorrows and struggles and moments of hopelessness and fears, where is He the One who calls me "precious in His sight," the One who promises that no matter what befalls me there is joy available, joy unspeakable. Where is He that One that provides the balm of Gilead, the jar for my tears, the words of truth and the sacrifice of ultimate love? I look for Him. He is findable. He longs for me to seek and find! And when I do see Him, I give thanks. Not just for what is before me, but thanks that I get to see Him. I get to see His gifts and in seeing Him and His gifts I am reminded of His infinite love for me. A love that never lets me go.

I have learned that the only thing that prevents me from seeing Him and giving thanks is when my eyes are fixed inward, on me. So, I work to look out, to see beyond, to seek. I work to wonder and think "where is He?" for I know He is near. Like the game of hide and seek I played with Annie Kate this morning, she walks around saying aloud "Where can Mimi be? I know she is here somewhere! Is she under the couch? Is she behind the door? I will find her." And the sweet 2 year old searches until she finds me and then with great delights squeals "I FOUND YOU!!!!" That is how I want to seek Him and that is the response I want to have every time I see Him, I want my response to be "I see You, thank you."