Gratefully Held Together By Grace

Papa continues to bring up the subject of gratitude.

The Attitude of Gratitude is very attractive.

A number of years ago I met a woman and was instantly drawn to her.

We would run into each other now and again, usually at a mutual friend's home.
When Ray and I would get an invite from our friend, I always hoped that the lady, who I'll call TS, would be there and was truly disappointed when she wasn't.
Recently, I have had the privilege of beginning a friendship with this lovely lady.
It is a gift from my Papa that answers my heart's desire for just such a friend.

As we visited yesterday TS shared how she had begun a gratitude list many years ago.
This attitude is ingrained in her character now and draws many to her.

It is Our God's desire for His children to be attractive, really stunning.

According to Second Corinthians we may be earthen vessels, but He has filled our hearts with His Light.
In the passage from the second chapter that happens to head up this blog, we learn that we are the fragrance of Christ.

Gratitude is one evidence that we are in touch with that Light and allowing the fragrance to waft from us.

It is not something we can do on our own.  We are dependent upon the Living God to grow us up in Him  and to help us be yielded vessels.
Remember Jesus said that apart from Him, we can do nothing!

Another Jill Caratinni commentary caught my attention.
In this one she quoted from a a book by Anne Lamott.  I had read a book by this author last year, I believe.  I had even commented on it right here.
The book was "Bird By Bird" and I was not overly enamored with it.  The biggest problem was that I thought I was reading material by a Christian author, which set me up with expectations that were not met.

The truth is that Ms Lamott was and is on a journey to and with God, as we all are.

The material that was lifted from her more recent books related how, even growing up in a household that celebrated its disbelief in God and then out on her own, she found herself seeking someone to thank for all the little things that she enjoyed in her life.
Ms Caratinni put it this way:

"She describes darkness in a broken world and an unpredictable childhood, the dimming affects of self-loathing, addiction, fear, guilt, and grief. And she somehow describes the presence of one to thank regardless, one whose light gradually appeared through a world that slowly cracked into a thousand pieces—maybe even cracking mercifully? "

She journeyed from her childhood home of dysfunction carrying, all the baggage with her, into her own form of darkness.  Yet, there was that need to find the One to thank anyway.

One comment by Anne Lamott spoke volumes,

"Man is born broken, he lives by mending.  The grace of God is the glue."

We spend our lives seeking to be whole, to find ourselves and it is when we find God that our longings are met.

How can we but be grateful?!

Yes, grateful to Him for extending His grace to us, broken vessels in need of much glue.....