‘gratitude’ by, Henri Nouwen:
“Gratitude is not a simple emotion or an obvious attitude. It is a difficult discipline to constantly reclaim my whole past as the concrete way in which God has led me to this moment and is sending me into the future. It is hard precisely because it challenges me to face the painful moments – experiences of rejection and abandonment, feelings of loss and failure – and gradually to discover in them the pruning hands of God purifying my heart for deeper love… Pruning means cutting, reshaping, removing what diminishes vitality…
Grateful people are those who can celebrate even the pains of life because they trust when harvest time comes the fruit will show that the pruning was not punishment but purification.” (From ‘All is Grace’)
Art Responses 