Shhhhh! Can you hear Him?

Give me a minute . . .  Nearly middle-aged woman at forty-one, it often takes me a minute to remember the sequence of events, so I'm going to give it a try here.  In January or February of this year, a woman I am blessed to have in my life brought my family and me dinner since I was recovering from a double mastectomy.  Along with this meal, she left me a beautifully wrapped gift which was Ann Voskamp's One Thousand Gifts.  On heavy-duty pain killers at the time, the book was lost in the shuffle of recovery and forgotten.
Fast forward to July of this year, and I was volunteering at my church's Vacation Bible School.  Partnered with another woman blessing, we talked books while supervising our group of kiddos.  She told me of an inspiring book written by a woman who found the answer to her questioning in the intentional act of thanking God for His abundance of gifts.  A familiarity was rising in the back of my mind the more my friend delved into the book's theme, but I couldn't put my metaphorical finger on this apparent deja vu.  Finally, my friend brought up a picture of the book cover on her smart phone, and I had seen that book jacket before, but I didn't place where.
A few days later, I decided to make what turned out a feeble attempt of clearing some of the clutter which had accumulated in my house during my downtime.  Selecting a bag, I emptied the contents in order to purge and organize.  Hidden within the paperwork was a book, the same book whose cover I saw on my friend's phone.  Opening the book, I discovered a note written from the woman who brought that nourishing meal early in the year.  Coincidence?  Absolutely!  The whisperings of God?  I'd like to think so. . .  "And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.  And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper."  1 Kings 19:12 (NLT)

Courtney Winkler

If interested in actively living Voskamp's One Thousand Gifts, please join Eat, Read, Pray at Troy United Methodist Church on the first and third Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. in the Oak Room beginning September 5, 2012 or online at EatReadPrayTroyUMC@gmail.com.