A triplet of Stars

The other day i got to have a moment to myself. A moment out of the house. I was at starbucks waiting for my husband to pick me up. I am limited on books currently - I don't have an ache to read the ones I have in the house and haven't made it to the thrift store yet...So I got my nonfat latte, and sat to read "One Thousand Gifts" by Ann Voskamp. A self help book, the kind i normally shove aside to grab my fiction novels. I struggle daily, my simple sort of struggles. She has been such an encouragement to me thus far. I needed to read these few pages, especially that particular day, God knew that :) It was a lovely evening in the coffee house. May I share with you the preciousness I took from her book?

"The sun climbs the horizon. I throw back the covers, take another breath, and begin. I get to. I get to live."

"How do we live fully so we are fully ready to die?"

"The face of Jesus flashes. Jesus, the God - Man with his own termination date. Jesus, the God - Man who came to save me from prisons of fear and guilt and depression and sadness. With an expiration of less than twelve hours, what does Jesus count as all most important?....(See verse below - Luke 22:19)

Luke 22:19: And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them....

"I read it slowly. In the original language, "he gave thanks" reads "eucharisteo.....the root word of eucharisteo is charis, meaning "grace.".....But it also hold it's derivative, the Greek word chara, meaning "joy."

"As long as thanks is possible, then joy is always possible. Joy is always possible. Whenever, meaning - now; wherever, meaning - here. The holy grail of joy is not in some exotic location or some emotional mountain peak experience. The joy wonder could be here! Here, in the messy, piercing ache of now, joy might be - unbelievably - possible! The only place we need see before we die is this place of seeing God, here and now. I whisper it out loud, let the tongue feel these sounds, the ear hear their truth. Charis. Grace. Eucharisteo. Thanksgiving. Chara. Joy. A triplet of stars, a constellation in the black. A threefold cord that might hold a life? Offer a way up into the fullest life? Grace, thanksgiving, joy. Eucharisteo. A Greek word...that might make meaning of everything?