Action De Grace

With Thanksgiving behind us and Christmas looming just ahead, I am hoping to remove distraction and find more time for reflection.  Not an easy task this time of year but still very necessary.  Things are changing rapidly around me and as life begins to pick up speed, now is the time for me to "be still and know God."

The meaning of Advent is a coming into place, view, or being; arrival.  This is especially significant to me this year because I am entering into a new phase of life.  The original Advent season was full of exciting anticipation which parallels the way I see my own new year to come.  The people were awaiting a gift from God - one that had been promised for generations.  The logistics of that gift coming along did not appear realistic but nonetheless, it was promised and it came to be.  I feel the same about what is happening in my own life.

The French meaning of Thanksgiving is action de grace.  Is it any wonder that Thanksgiving comes before Christmas?  It is a time to prepare our hearts for the greatest gift of grace there ever was!  We celebrate all the ways we are blessed just before we celebrate the arrival of our greatest blessing.

It has been heavy on my heart this last month that gratitude should come naturally to me and be practiced continually - not given focus just during a specific season of the year.  There are two themes that have developed over the last year for me:  love and gratitude.  They go hand in hand.  Without love, we would not experience thankfulness and without the ability to be thankful, we would not recognize when we are loved.  We must be able to to experience these in order to gain the full effect of God's provision and live out His purpose.  It is far too easy to forget the ways God loves us but if we are able to live Thanksgiving (action de grace) year round, we can't help but see evidence daily that we are held close to His heart.

Thanksgiving (action de grace) goes far beyond gratitude.  It must be acted upon - in other words, paid forward.  The giving part is my focus this year but I want it to extend beyond Christmas and I hope to be financially comfortable enough to engage in some random good deeds here and there.  It is most fun when remaining anonymous.  The dollar amount of the gift is not important - it's the heart of the giver that matters.  When you give out of love, the gift is precious no matter how big or small.  Whether tangible or intangible - if done out of gratitude, a gift can be the gateway to something even more valuable - it can be a glimpse of Christ for the receiver.

So - as I journey towards the things I've wanted most in life and I see them come to pass along the way, I will be reminded just how much God loves me.  In addition to being awestruck by it, I want to put into action and pay forward some of that love.  He has held me and protected me, healed me and empowered me over the last year and my hope is that somehow I can encourage others to see my source of strength and help them find it too.

In the words of Anne Voskamp:
When grace rescues you, then giving thanks is the responding action.
When grace delivers you, then action defines you. 
When grace takes you in right where you are, then you act out your gratitude wherever you are.
Random acts of kindness are the action plan of God’s people.
Thanksgiving is action de grace in French —  and after Thanksgiving comes Christmas and after grace comes action, and we don’t occasionally give thanks to feel good but we live thanks to routinely do good.