Ann Voskamp begins Chapter 11 (“The Joy of Intimacy”) of One Thousand Gifts with this quote from C. S. Lewis that establishes the theme for this final chapter:
“I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation.”
The author discusses this quote in the context of her trip to Paris, France at the invitation of her friend Linda, the previously unnamed friend who once dared Ann to list 1000 things for which she was thankful. This trip was quite a tall order for a formerly agoraphobic farm girl from Ontario, Canada. As Ann murmurs thanks to Jesus while boarding the plane and buckling her seat belt, she draws 2 comparisons between thanksgiving and fear:
1. It’s impossible for thanksgiving and fear to coexist. Thanksgiving casts out fear. Consider the words of Zephaniah 3:17- “The Lord God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.”
2. Thanksgiving helps us comprehend that the most fundamental principle is what God thinks of us, not what thoughts we project onto God. C. S.Lewis states in The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses: “How God thinks of us is not only more important, but infinitely more important.”
