This post is long overdue. Since the last one on March 31, I’ve intended to follow up as a strategy for dealing with my sister’s transition. But the intervening days tumbled like the proverbial tumbleweed, and I couldn’t catch myself long enough to stop. Just as well. I’m in better a frame of mind; the distractions are gone; the house is quiet again. Because I believe her spirit reached the entrance to heaven and the Savior Himself opened the door to welcome her home, I can smile at the imagery. Truth be told, it makes me kind of jealous!
An unrelated event occurred yesterday that reminds me of the saying, “As long as God keeps waking you up, he’s not done with you yet.” As I stepped out of my car and headed into the cleaners for a pick-up, a man who’d parked about the same time as I followed me into the establishment. As I was ahead of him by at least three to four steps, I entered first and announced myself. The proprietor came to the counter, took my receipt, held it in one hand, turned from me and asked the other customer for his phone number to accept the shirts the customer counted out! I was speechless as I stood there and waited as the owner entered the requisite information, printed the receipt, handed it to the man and bade him good-bye. On what had begun as a relaxing, peaceful day was suddenly anything but. As he proceeded to retrieve my dress, my mind raced. I had been obviously slighted and ignored. Why? I was dumbfounded. This was my initial foray into this particular cleaner. It was within the circle of the grocery store, pharmacy and gas station that I frequented. I’d decided a few days earlier to give it a try, rather than drive past it to one further down the street. In fact, when I’d left my dress a couple days before, I’d said with a smile, “Impress me.” The owner had responded, “God bless you.” Smiling to myself, I thought this will work.
Well, that smile was nowhere close to forming as I pondered what to do or say in that moment. Call him out for the slight I perceived as an inequitable business practice? Tell him off in no uncertain terms that he’d lost an opportunity to gain a new customer. Go online and give his business a blistering negative review? I did and had done nothing but tuck the incident away in my mental folder. Until today. This morning one line in a devotional helped me to take it out and bring closure to the experience. “His (God’s) love is so full, and his grace so boundless, that when his Spirit lives in us, even a flat tire can feel like a blessing.” The devotional’s scriptural reference was John 1:16 – “For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.”
As 8-0 and I continue to get acquainted and dance around what this new season means, I remember that God’s work for us ends when He says it’s done. That work is unique for each believer. For me, that work entails among other things telling stories of the time, in my writing here and book form. We three individuals were but characters in the ongoing story of race-gender casteism in this United States of America. An African American senior aged woman customer, an Asian-American small business owner, an Anglo-American male customer. The oft unspoken roles by which we are socialized in the good ole USA played out that day. Perhaps the takeaway for me is simply that NOTHING can steal God’s Spirit that lives in me. Even this incident was a blessing; it gave fodder for my writing. Grace upon grace, in everything. Every morning He wakes me up.
Peace. Joy. Love.
Grace upon grace. Everyday that God wakes up in our right mind, shelter, food, family.
If I am not able to be in my right mind, not knowing God or family, I hope to go with The Lord. A much better place than waking up here confused, not knowing where I am nor who I am. I am a child of God and hope to be with God when I don’t recognize my life here.