Lightbulb in the Gloom

Sometimes I receive little messages from my Heavenly Father (what I like to call 'lightbulbs') - they are not dissimilar to pulling my eyelids back a little farther in order for me to see things more clearly and properly.
I received a message today as I was walking in the gloomy doom (or doomy gloom?) on my way to my first class. It totally brightened my day. God showed me that I have so much to be thankful for.
So I know you're thinking, "WELL DUH!!!!! doesn't EVERYONE know that?!??!"
Well, yes, I see your point - but just because we "know" that we ought to be thankful, doesn't necessarily mean that we consciously are, or that we ever stop to ponder what we are actually thankful for.
I started praising God for all of his marvelous works in my life, and when I got into the Prayer Room later today I didn't know what to pray about. My mind baffles me sometimes.
My dad always told  me that if you didn't know what to pray about, you could always go through the alphabet and think of a word for each letter on a topic that you wanted to pray about (i.e. God's attributes, people, etc.) I realized that this is what I should do for my prayer of thanksgiving. Unfortunately, I did not have enough time to go through the entire alphabet at that time.
Actually, due to my spastic brain, I only got through the first letter.
But that is OK because now I have resolved to spend the next 36 days or so writing about one thing I am thankful for, corresponding with each letter of the alphabet. I will also finally discover how many letters are actually in the alphabet.
So, my word for today (the first day of this great adventure) is.......
ATONEMENT
Yeah, seriously, that's what popped into my head when I thought of the letter "A". And, like a lot of things that pop into my head, I feel as though I don't thoroughly know the meaning of this word.
So I looked up the definition on dicitonary.com (because that's where all the answers to your heart's desires are located), and the first definition was, "satisfaction or reparation for a wrong or injury; amends".
I feel like this definition is somewhat satisfactory...except that the atonement that I'm talking about is on a much much much grander and more epic scale. The second definition (which was prefaced by the phrase, "sometimes initial capital letter: Theology") said, "the doctrine concerning the reconciliation of God and humankind, especially as accomplished through the life, suffering, and death of Jesus Christ".
So that's pretty good for a website, but there's still so much more.
Romans 5:8-11 says, "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement."
So in order for us to be saved from the WRATH of GOD, Jesus Christ had to SHED HIS BLOOD and DIE for us. Wow. Atonement is the beginning for all the other "theologically-sound words" such as "Justification", "Redemption", and "Sanctification". It describes the actual act of Christ mending the immense wrong in the world. Beautiful. 
Atonement is definitely a word I'm going to use a lot now. It makes me think of a hymn but I can't remember it at present. When I think of it I can't help but be thankful for what Christ went through in order for my wretched person to be saved from wrath! Praise be his glorious and merciful name!