Melissa Smith

I think that God is our bridegroom. Because we are the church. The Bible is full of metaphorical evidence that his love for us is sacrificial just as a husbands should be. Ephesians 5:22-27 Wives and Husbands [22] Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. [23] For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. [24] Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. [25] Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, [26] that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, [27] so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. God also calls us his children. We are adopted into an inheritance that makes God our Abba Father. Another metaphor that we understand. Because our love for our children should also be sacrificial. These two pictures God gives us should cause us to LEAN into him when times are hard. 1000 Gifts is all about leaning into God. To trust him wholly even when this world does not make sense and it rarely does. The imagery provided pictures Ann gives that resound with who God should be to us. Gratitude is an act of worship. We come into God’s presence with Thanksgiving and that doesn’t just mean when times are good. This book changed my stance before the Lord. I no longer feel sorry for myself (not as much anyway) but trust that God allows hard things, excruciatingly difficult things to teach us to lean into him. Because there are times my earthly father and mother and my husband cannot carry me through the heartbreaks I receive here in this life. But God can. And through gratitude - the kind 1000 Gifts talks of - Eucrist Deo - my outlook on this life has become less about the struggle and more a about seeing the little things that God gives me to draw my eyes to him and my heavenly home. So when the unimaginable happens and crushes me, my thanksgiving to God changes my being. My trust in the difficulties through thanksgiving sees me through. If you are hurting, this book transforms the pain into an act of worship through thanksgiving. And then king God is an entry point that grows faith. So read it. Thank God when you see the sunset that makes it so evident that our God gives us beautiful things in creation to draw our hearts and minds to him - not to worship creation, but to know God in the extension of his creativity. It makes everyday things beautiful and the hard things promised in John 16:33 an act of holy worship when we are thankful in and for the difficult things because joy is the product. Read the book! Read it and let go of your predisposed notion of what life looks like and should be like. We are just here for a little while. Learn to live heavenly minded!