Marriage Moats- Gratitude

Published: Tue, 06/26/12


Marriage Moats Caring for Marriage

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 I am reading a book about gratitude. One of the illustrations that was immediately stamped on my heart was about the feeding of the five thousand.

 
And they said to Him, "We have here only five loaves and two fish."

Jesus said, "Bring them here to Me." Then He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes. So they all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained. Now those who had eaten were about five thousand men, besides women and children. Matthew 14

The bridge that spans the gap between scarcity and abundance is a spoken blessing. Jesus offered thanks for a pair of fish and an armload of bread, and somewhere between the bowed head and the jostling journey of baskets through the crowd, brimming with broken pieces, paucity bloomed into bounty. 
 
When did the expansion happen? Did the number of loaves multiply? Did fistfuls of fish reappear in the space left behind after hungry children had grabbed for food?
 
As a result of reading the book, which is called One Thousand Gifts, I invited John to help me record a thousand slices of gratitude. I suggested it on our anniversary, in our corner booth at a Mexican restaurant. I wondered what he would think. I guess I still don't know what he thinks but I know what he did. He took the pen and journal and began writing. I smiled at his immediacy, and expected him to stop after two or five sentences but he kept going. And going.
 
While I enjoyed the Mariachi band he filled an entire page with gratefulness. At first I had the ridiculous reaction that he was expressing too much thanks, since I was picturing the process taking us a year, with a few bites a day. At this rate we would spill into five thousand.
 
But I held my wagging tongue, and pictured sharing the excess with random people in the crowd.
 
 
Photo by Jenny Stein
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