I have had this concept on my heart for a while now, but felt like today was the time to write it down. I first heard about Dayenu when a friend’s dad used this structure to write about a hard time in their family’s life. It moved me deeply then, and, as I prepared to write this and read a bit more online about the over 1,000 year Jewish tradition of singing Dayenu at Passover, I was so overwhelmed. Dayenu details God’s blessing and provision of Israel leading them out of Egypt and into the Promised Land. It is a song of JOY and gratitude for God’s provision, heaped abundantly on his people. The idea is that, even if God had only done ONE gracious thing for his people and stopped there, that that would have been enough to be worthy of this joyful praise song. But how sweet and kind is our Father, that he heaps on the blessing and just keeps being kind to his people – even when they are unfaithful and forgetful and distracted. Dayenu refocuses our minds, taking us from our present problems to the trail of proof that God is both faithful and kind. It shows us that sometimes there is blessing in the midst of the world’s injustice and also that sometimes, as Annie Downs* says about Jacob’s story and our own lives, the limp IS the blessing. Dayenu is Hebrew for the phrase, it would have been enough. Even one blessing would have proved his kindness, and the trail proves his faithfulness.
As Christians, we could add and add to this list in regard to our salvation and all the spiritual blessings that come after that, but I personally chose for my writing today to focus on my more immediate circumstances for my own purposes of cultivating gratitude and contentment in my current season. This list is by no means exhaustive for me, but it paints a journey and a trail of faithfulness in the details of the material and emotional blessings of my life the past few years. Were I to start back at the root of our gratitude, salvation, I can’t even imagine the miles and miles of trail this journey would take me on. Maybe someday I’ll start it just for myself. But to write and share today, this list is a small sampling, but to me, a mighty one. I find that the blessing of this is more in the writing than the sharing and reading, so maybe this calls you to consider and write down your own trail of Dayenu. ❤️
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If the Lord had brought us to the beautiful land of Alaska, but not given us our home on Hannah Jane, it would have been enough.
If he had given us a warm and lovely home, but not the perfect neighbors, it would have been enough.
If he had brought us Josh and Melia, but not our entire church family, it would have been enough.
If he had brought us to ACF, but not our precious life group family, it would have been enough.
If he had brought us to a life group, but not to our best friends, it would have been enough.
If he had given us best friends, but not also so many good ones, it would have been enough.
If he had given us good friends, but no ministries to serve in, it would have been enough.
If he had brought us kingdom work to do, but not also kingdom fun, it would have been enough.
If he had showed us kingdom fun, but we’d only lived there for a month, it would have been enough.
If he had asked us to leave, with no hope of coming back, those years of blessing would have been enough.
If he had given us one person to tell us goodbye, but no one else came to hug us hard, it would have been enough.
If he had brought us safely to Georgia, but not on a beautiful roadtrip through mountains, deserts, and forests, it would have been enough.
If he had given us memories splashed across an entire continent, but not a home upon arrival, it would have been enough.
If he had given us a home to live in, but not a maintenance crew to spray for bugs, (so help me, but) it would have been enough.
If he had given us a (mostly) bug-free home, but not a mighty air conditioner, it would have been enough.
If he had given us the sweet gift of AC, but not the cool that comes with a late Fall, it would have been enough.
If he had given us the season change that signals his faithfulness, but no one to enjoy it with, it would have been enough.
If he had reminded us that we are each other’s best friend, but not given us a single friend outside our marriage, it would have been enough.
If he had given us some friends, but not the deep connections we crave, it would have been enough.
If he had given us a church, but not also our old one through the wonders of technology, it would have been enough.
If he had given us texting, but not FaceTime, it would have been enough.
If he had given us Marco Polo, but not a hope to ever visit, it would have been enough.
If he had given us the means to visit, but not an assignment to return, it would have been enough.
If he had given us orders to Alaska, and not a thing to show for our time in Georgia, it would have been enough.
If he had given us learning and growth and accomplishment, but not a memory worth repeating, it would have been enough.
If he had given us a few belly laughs and new adventures, but not a blessing more, it would have been enough.
If he had given us no more blessing, just his presence with us, it would have been more than enough.
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*Annie F. Downs writes about Jacob’s story of wrestling with God in Genesis 32 in her book Remember God, which you should DEF read.