“It seemed to me that Plato put it correctly when he said, ‘Our eyes can be turned toward the light as well as toward the dark. If our whole soul is turned away from this visible world toward the bright regions, then our eyes can become able to understand the Good.’ He says further, ‘Do you not believe that it is a turning round of the soul into the right direction so that the eyes may see? For we all have eyes, though we do not know where to look.’
“I found these words lightened my hopeless hours. If I turned my soul in the right direction, my eyes could see. I saw a world in which I had some infinitesimal part, and to which I had an obligation. I saw the wide gaze of children, the tender look of lovers, the warm smiles of friends. I saw a newly opened rose. I saw the effortless flying movement of the Irish on a dewy lawn and the flat-out ears of the cockers following after. I saw so many wonders it would take a lifetime to list them.
“By observing, my eyes saw the mysterious light of dawn and the still blaze of noon. I looked at the world—-and forgot myself. And I began to find some good in every day. I didn’t try to work at being happy, I worked at finding that good in every day and experiencing it fully. And, at night, I thanked God in my prayers for whatever the good had been. It might be any one of a number of things: An unexpected telephone call from a friend. A letter of warm appreciation for something I had written. A neighbor dropping in with a bouquet of pansies in midwinter (from her small greenhouse). The sudden working out of a difficult problem in my current book. The overnight blossoming of the lilies of the valley. A special picnic with dear friends who only come on week ends. The voice of my granddaughter trying to get her tongue around words. ‘Tzeez,’ she says triumphantly, meaning ‘cheese’.
“There was, I found, something in every day if I kept my eyes turned toward the light!”

Gladys Taber in Another Path, published in 1963

On Friday I had something wonderful happen. I don’t know if you remember a few years back when my husband used to have me prepare lunches now and then for his team for “off site” meetings held at our house? I met Julie during these lunch meetings. I still don’t know her very well, but I have seen her huge giving heart several times and most recently, this Friday when my husband came home with a Christmas patterned gift bag saying “This is for you, from Julie.”

The tag explained that when she was in Korea recently, she saw these little cups and THOUGHT OF ME!

Someone was in Korea and thought of me!

She remembered my fiestaware and thought these sweet little cups would look nice with them.

In the bottom of each one there is a little fish!

How dear! I promptly put them on display amongst the fiesta.

So, my very dear friends, don’t get thrown off course. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle. He brought us to life using the true Word, showing us off as the crown of all his creatures. James 1:17-18

you are loved.