The third day of the new year, three days until Epiphany. I have been conscious of the Christmas calendar more this year because I participated (and will be throughout the year as I work on this project) in an online class called Journal Your Christmas. It's set up in a truly helpful way because there is no pressure to follow a certain direction, although prompts are provided every day for journaling and photographs from December 1 through January 6. Rather than journal this specific 2012 Christmas, I decided to do a retrospective of memories, which feels like a bit much, but I will keep working at it all year. I am looking through photo boxes and CDs for all our Christmas photos, which is quite a challenge and is turning out to be quite a few pictures! I have always loved Christmas and this is my opportunity to examine it in more detail and pull together some thoughts, pictures, recipes--all sorts of things. It will be fun to have in the future...and to add to from time to time as well. This is also going to help with one of my goals--that of sorting and putting some shape to our family history and stories.
The prompt for today's list of gifts (we are working toward a list of 1000 by the end of 2013) is about grace. That is a huge concept and my life is totally dependent on the grace of others...God first of all, my very patient husband, our family, even down to a person standing in line behind me or behind me at a traffic light. Some of my favorite verses are Eph. 2:8-9.
Today's gifts are about episodes of grace extended:
#7 My husband. I am most always thankful for him (smile), but in particular this week he has extended grace so generously. We were scheduled to babysit overnight for our grandson, and I caught the very nasty cold going around, so Chuck went and stayed for 24 hours caring for an almost 3-year old by himself. I stayed home and slept and coughed and blew my nose.
#8 Our neighbors. When I came home from the hospital in October, our neighbor brought a huge pot of soup to us, made a curtain for our front door (I had already purchased the fabric), and gave me a lap quilt for our journey to Mayo Clinic. She said that as she makes the quilts, she prays for the person it goes to. What grace! Another neighbor baked some cookies for us. We have been so blessed in our new little community of neighbors.
#9 Our son-in-law. When Chuck had his nosebleed episode after Thanksgiving that took us to the ER in Minnesota, our son-in-law drove us there, stayed in the room with Chuck while they were working on him (and I had to walk out or pass out), waited patiently while I picked up a prescription, and then went back to the pharmacy later to get another prescription.
The thing about grace is that it is undeserved, which makes me feel even more grateful.
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