I just stumbled across this writer via The Rabbit Room. Such a great word!
Hope you enjoy.
Heard at Hutchmoot: Shiny Things
Heard at Hutchmoot: A Series on Words From Our Weekend in Nashville
The keynote speaker at Hutchmoot was an author by the name of Leif Enger. His most notable works are the bestseller Peace Like a River and So Brave, Young, and Handsome.
Leif gave us some encouragement to see from his life on a Minnesota farm. He and his wife like to take walks at sunset when the weather is warm. Leif usually carries some change in his pocket, and there’s a certain rock where he will leave a coin or two.
Why? Because the crows like shiny things. When the couple passes by that rock later on, the coins are always gone. Leif said it gives the birds happiness to have shiny things in their nest, and it gives him joy to think of those coins making their way into trees around the property.
He said, “Look for the shiny things. Store them away.”
What’s a shiny thing for you?
A shiny thing this time of year is my husband’s faithfulness to turn on the Christmas tree lights early in the morning. The kids’ eagerness to shop for their siblings. The Behold the Lamb of God concert.
A shiny thing anytime of year is the light filtering through the trees a certain way. The smell of homemade soup. Times with friends when you laugh until you cry. Words from a familiar Psalm.
When I was eager to look at those crows as hoarders, Leif Enger turned that image on its head and said I should be a hoarder of shiny things. Shiny things make us grateful to the Giver of all good gifts.
Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. James 1:16-18
P.S. Those books mentioned above? Check them out. That man that my husband now calls his “friend” is a wonderful storyteller.
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