Friday's Grace

"From the fullness of his grace, we have all received one blessing after another." John 1:16

I have to admit, it was a rougher week than most. Not in compared to the devastation in other parts of the world mind you, but by Friday, my normally cheerful self was feeling pretty glum and I was beginning to feel like a good fist-shaking at the heavens was in order. We had lost a court case based on false evidence. We had learned of death, both close to home and afar. We had joined in the sadness of our dear friend being hospitalized, not knowing if she would make it back out or not. There was not a whole lot of laughter filling the house, (except for Liam of course who apparently has to meet a certain laugh quota each day to fulfill his destiny.)

So, as I was getting ready early Friday morning, I heard the garbage trucks outside and realized we had not gotten the cans out yet....ARGH!

"Oh no! The trash!" I said, rushing downstairs and out the door to get the can down to the street. As I turned around to head in, I saw the truck coming out of the cul-du-sac next to us and realized I had missed them entirely. Our very kind neighbor across the street has a different trash service so using the blanket statement of permission he gave me long ago, I added some of my stuff to his half empty cans and took mine back up into the garage. I pushed the button to close the garage door and went in, tail between my legs to tell Kurt I had missed the truck. It just wasn't a good week.

"Look, the guy is right outside. Run the can to the other side of the street and maybe he will take them," Kurt replied, having noticed the garbage man stopped in front of our house.

"It's too late," I said, feeling defeated and not wanting to chase down a truck. "I already brought the can back into the garage and he won't wait."

"Well, look, he has our can," Kurt said.

Sure enough, the garbage collector, having seen me running around with my cans after his pick-up, had come back by the house, stopped in front, come up into our garage where the door had for some reason not gone down after all and had taken our trash to the other side of the street so he could get it into his truck! I was half way down the driveway when he came back around with our cans.

"Thank you SOOOOOO much!" I exclaimed in complete gratitude. "That was SOOOO sweet of you!"

He simply smiled and, without a word, moved on.

I came back in refreshed; delighting once again in God's creation. There is much devastation in the world. There is much sorrow and pain. There are those who will do anything, no matter how immoral or unethical in order to get what they want.

But, in the midst of these, there is love. There is kindness and great joy and ever so often, an angel or two, sent to remind us that we are loved and cared for and that if only we have a little faith, even our trash will be collected and thrown out so we can once again start anew.

Thanks Trash Guy!

And Happy Weekend World!

May all your days be filled with grace!