Scrounging

In the last two weeks since I bought my new house I have been scrounging everything from used newspapers to polish my windows with to plants and plant cuttings to get my garden underway. It is humbling to need the help and kindness of others, but need it I do. If I get to the point of sitting on street corners rattling my cup for coins I'll let you know. Why is there never enough- time, money, energy, heck everything? Gee, we are told that Christ came to give us abundant life yet sometimes I feel that I must have misplaced my abundance somewhere.

Then again, abundance could be a relative thing. I look around me. I have more rooms in my house than people living in it, more food in my pantry than we can eat today, more clothes in my wardrobe than I'm likely to wear out this millennia (of course most have shrunk to a size too small since I had kidlets so they are in no danger of ever being worn out.)

Recently, in the middle of moving chaos, my kids and I put together Christmas boxes. Nothing surprising in that, we do it every year. Last year's went to Thailand I think. Anyway, the organizers have a list of things to put in the boxes- everything from soap and toothbrushes, to clothes, hard candies, school supplies, something to love and something to play with. Apparently the box recipients are delighted by a rubber ball or skipping rope, and get excited by toiletries/school stuff and clothes! Can you imagine our kids if that was all they got for Christmas? Sort of puts things into perspective, doesn't it?

So I got to thinking, maybe what I am most short on is gratitude. How much we in Australia and America have and take for granted. (We don't have tanks rumbling down our streets for starters.) Maybe what I should be scrounging for is enough grace to live the way God intended for me, and enough wisdom to make the best of all he gives me. What are you most grateful for?