On grace...

I have been, in my life, the recipient of grace more times that I can count but events of yesterday brought two such instances to my mind.

The first happened many years ago. My wife and I were newly married and very broke. It was Christmas and we still gave gifts to all the members of her family but were unable to provide for all and so we, as they say today "regifted" a few of our wedding gifts for Christmas. Among them was a set of glasses which we gave to our sister in law, who, as I recall, had actually asked for kitchen items. Unfortunately we had forgotten to take off a label under the box which identified who had given it to us for a gift, a label which was immediately uncovered when the box was opened. I remember my sister in law looking at my wife and I, who were profoundly embarassed, smiling and nothing more of it was ever said. She understood what it was like to be newly married, in seminary, having little money and a desire to give something, anything, for Christmas.

The second happened just yesterday evening. My brother and I were moving appliances in my mother's home, looking through old photos, and browsing through my dad's collection of tie tacks. In that collection was a pocket watch, not particulary fancy, but one that had surely belonged to my father and perhaps my grandfather as well. I did, for some reason, want that watch but the collection of tie tacks was for my brother and I to share and I invited him to choose. Somehow he knew that i wanted the watch. Was it a slip of the tongue? Something I did? I don't know but he chose the tie tacks and let me have the watch. I was prepared, as I have often been, to take lesser things out of a place in my heart that still recoils against ahything being unwanted or alone, but yesterday what I wished and what I received were the same because of my brother's thoughtfulness.

I have no idea whether my sister in law remembers that Christmas over 20 years ago, but I do. And years after that watch has stopped working its value will lie not in who it belonged to but what larger good was given to me in a simple act of Lenten grace.