Grace: mercy; clemency; pardon, the freely given, unmerited favor and love of God.
Today has been “one of those days.” It started with me going out to start my van. Only it was too cold and my van wouldn’t start. Nathan was gone, Pastor Bryan was gone, all my traditional stand-bys for jumping my vehicle were nowhere to be found. So, I called my neighbor, Steve, across the street. I felt bad doing it, because he has a really bad back and I did not want him to have to get out on the snow and ice. But, he was quick to come to my rescue and get my van going. He then insisted that I enter his cell phone number in my phone so that he could come to my rescue anywhere in Duluth if I had any problems the rest of the day.
I continued on with my errands. I came out of Menard’s, started up my van and backed out. . .right into the side of a small Pontiac. If you’ve ever had an accident you can remember that sickening crunching sound when two vehicles that are not supposed to collide, do. My stomach immediately felt sick. The car was so small, I couldn’t even see it. I had no idea what I had hit. I pulled back into my spot and got out to inspect the damage. My van was fine, but the little car did not look so good. Actually, the more I thought about it, there was no way my van put two huge dents in that car! I just prayed the owner would be honest about what damage was there previously and what I had done. The kids just happened to call me then and I quickly asked them to pray for me and I headed into Menard’s to have the owner paged, praying it wasn’t a cranky woman like me or a huge, Harley guy or something.
A few minutes later, a kindly, professorial looking man appeared. I confessed I had backed into the side of his car. He answered with a simple, but not distressed, “Oh no.” and we went to inspect the cars.
He immediately assured me that most of the damage was already there and I dug around in the glove box for my insurance information. By the time I surfaced, he had changed his mind. In a good way.
“You know what?” he said. “Never mind. The more I think about it, it’s just not worth it. Don’t worry about the damage.” He stuck his hand out, shook my hand and said, “Have a nice day.”
I was dumbstruck. I asked him several times if he was sure and offered him my phone number if he changed his mind, but he just smiled at me and said no, it was fine and walked away. I was left there at my van, in tears, cuz it’s that time of the month and I AM a girl after all, wondering what I had done to deserve this man’s kindness.
Let’s see, number one, I hit his car. Number two, I DID dent it. But, he shrugged it off and walked way. That’s grace. Just a very tiny reminder of the grace God offered to me when He sent Jesus to die on my behalf for my sins. I didn’t deserve it. I was in the wrong. Yet, I was offered mercy, clemency, pardon.
Grace.
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