Eucharisteo

Eucharisteo...thanksgiving...always precedes the miracle.

I love to read and a friend of mine from church was reading a book one day at the pool this summer,  "One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are" by Ann Voskamp. Kathy told me a little bit about it and mentioned it was a book they were reading in their book club. I could not make the Monday evening get togethers, so I purchased the book on Amazon and read it pretty quickly.

Ann, the author of the book writes about "How do we find joy in the midst of deadline, debt, drama, and daily duties? What does a life of gratitude look like when your days are gritty, long and sometimes dark? What is God providing here and now?" She discovered, in giving thanks for the life she already had, she found the life she'd always wanted. She kept a notebook and wrote down her daily thanks as she came across them in the moment. 

Now, I also love to make jewelry and I am usually inspired by what I am reading at the time. I happened to be taking a webinar "Windows to My Heart" by Diane Cook at the same time and the image popped into my head what I had to make.

I really enjoyed the book and it opened a "Window to My Heart", so to speak and I translated this into my bracelet.

The base of the cuff and the heart are both nickel silver and the band in between the two is copper. On the heart I etched "Grace, thanksgiving, joy" and "Eucharisteo".

The copper band reads "The greatest thing is to give thanks for everything. He who has learned this knows what it means to live...He has penetrated the whole mystery of life: giving thanks for everything.

The image under the mica is part of the painting "Supper at Emmaus" by Italian Baroque artist Caravaggio. In "1000 Gifts", Ann travels to Paris with a friend and sees a Rembrandt of strangers at Emmaus eating with Christ. Everything she wrote about came together and was so clear to her at this moment. I googled Rembrandt's painting and was in awe of Caravaggio's painting and had to use it in my piece instead of the Rembrandt. Don't get me wrong, I do love Rembrandt!

"When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him" (Luke 24"30-31 NIV).

I had to finish the back with sheet music of "Joy to The World" - it just seemed so appropriate to me.

"Thank You, God, for the bread of now...
for Your Son and sacrifice...
for the love song You keep singing, the gift of Yourself that You keep giving...
for the wild wonder of You in this moment."