We each experience God in our lives in myriad ways. The collect for today speaks of the scriptures as a gift from God. That is my experience, and I hope it is yours. No matter what is going on in my life, when I take the time to “read, mark, learn and inwardly digest” the lessons for the day, I find a word I need to hear. Sometimes it may be a word I don’t want to hear, but there it is with my name on it—God’s word to me. Like many gifts I have received from family and friends over the years, I may not appreciate it very much; I may not use it very wisely or well; I may not recognize the benefit it has for me at the time. You can probably relate to gifts like that in your own life.

God’s gifts, however, don’t stop with the Word of God. To begin with, there’s life itself; every breath we take is a gift from God, and, as it is said, how we live our life is our gift to God. Then there are the gifts of the Spirit: “the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord” is how they are enumerated by the prophet Isaiah (11:2). The apostle Paul lists them (I Cor.12:4-11) as the utterance of wisdom and knowledge, healing, working of miracles, prophecy, discernment of spirits, various kinds of tongues, and interpretation of tongues, all given to us to be used for the common good. For “the common good” reminds me of the people in our lives with whom God gifts us. Some seem to be an obvious blessing; others the bane of our existence—perhaps to serve as sandpaper to smooth off our rough edges, and some first one and then the other. All creation is a gift from God, from the magnificence of the entire cosmos to the tiniest wildflower beside the road, all given in love, by Love to delight us as we travel on our way. It is sad that we seem hell-bent on destroying it all one way or another.

Take a few minutes to think about the ways that you recognize God’s gifts from day to day, and be thankful. Consider how you might demonstrate your appreciation for the gifts of God.