Giving thanks each Monday

"Turtles! They're my second favourite sea animal. Dolphins are first, then turtles."
A titbit in an overheard conversation, at home, today. I need to write it down because I smiled for about 2 hours as a result.

I remember loving to catalog my likes and dislikes, favourite colours, favourite foods, favourite songs... I still do it sometimes. Springing out of a desire to know who we are and where we fit in. It's a buzz to find someone who likes what I like. Someone who understands my experience and shares it. Connects.

Perhaps it is an urge to know we are not alone out there, misunderstood and anchorless. Again, we discover our identity, our belonging through relationship.

We begin friendship with shared things, common favourites. We progress to agreement about thoughts and ideas. Opinions that match, or at least, interract and create a dialogue.

Then comes the power of shared emotion. Knowing sadness together grows intimacy in relationships. Shared joy or excitement builds powerful bridges. The deepest friendships have well-worn paths visiting painful and precious places. Paths wide enough so that we do not walk alone.

Sometimes, I catch for a moment, a brief impression of God's emotion. His sadness for a damaged person, his compassion for our helplessness, his joy in sharing our lives. I have been friends with him for more than half my life, but I realise that our friendship is only just beginning. I realise that my attempts to be devoted in the friendship are paltry and distracted. Not in an "I'm such a terrible sinner/bad person" kind of way. Instead I mean that in comparison with his towering, sacrificing, searching, gracious, enduring love, mine is quite..., well,... human.

Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Phil 3:8a

The list of blessings continues...

802.  Sparkles on a plastic table cloth
803.  Making bubble and squeak, memories of childhood Boxing Day breakfasts
804.  Relaxed dinner at home, friends around
805.  Children in PJs, warm and clean
806.  Friday night footy, a family ritual
807.  Brilliant sunshine in cold weather
808.  Shoes that have served me well
809.  Ingenuity in all its manifestations
810.  New mercy every morning
811.  Twinkling eye trickery over a cup of milk
812.  An orange love seat from the op shop
813.  Looking forward to special things
814.  Planting seeds unexpectedly
815.  Comparisons that reveal my human love to be such a pale, limp version of God's

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