How the first one hundred changed me

She stoops down low and scoops up another.

"Look at this one, mama!  It's so sparkly!" She cups it in her small hands and brings it to her nose and takes a moment to tell me how wonderful it is.  I don't have the heart to tell her that the driveway is filled with ones exactly like this one.  I let her find the magic in it and we celebrate the discovery. She names it.  "Gaine" this one is called, she says.  She runs over to the puddle God made her yesterday and casts it in.  The sound, the splash, the rings it leaves behind send her into giggles again.  She runs back to the driveway to find another.

I too run, not to the puddle, but to the open journal on the counter, and I cast my own into a sea of never-ending graces.

14.  The rain that brought the "Stone Puddle" game

I take a moment to tell the Maker "thank you" for the smallness that instantly becomes something to marvel at the moment I take the time to scribble it down.  How many times have I left so many graces underfoot by simply not taking the time to count them?  How many opportunities have I lost in thanking Creator God for crafting me a lifetime of joy made up of miniscule moments such as these?      

Count them, count them, pile them high!  He is good.  He is SO good.

 21.  New books and ravenous reading
37. Dozens and dozens of dragonflies and the reminder of the Resurrection, how He makes all things new
42.  A weary husband who is willing to clean
53.  Hymns that speak truth to my heart and a body of seasoned believers to sing them with
62.  Sadie- and her belly laugh when discovered how her finger fits perfectly in her nostril
79.  Tantrums past and the patience to endure them 
91.  Listening to John Piper while he peels, and I chop, and they sleep



I am twenty-eight days full of graces, when I realize I've hit 100.  It started with a challenge from our pastor's wife to write three things down a day that you're thankful for, and the reading of this book that showed me the importance of it.  And, oh, how He has blessed me through it!  

And its not about finding the things.   The things are mere shadows of His grace.  Its the treasure hunt that is really the Treasure hunt- the discovery of gifts that show His goodness, provision, kindness, and grace.  And its not the actual discovery, but the act of looking that changes me.  It turns my heart from, "Why can't I ever find a matching pair?!?!?!" to "A sea of socks- I am so blessed to have too many."

It's teaching me to stoop low, marvel, name, and cast back.  Sometimes the ripples last all day, sometimes only minutes, but watching how He wraps such small details in Grace makes me so thankful that I am my Beloved's and He is mine.

100.  One hundred graces and thousands more to find.