Let’s pretend for a moment that the mailman pulled into my drive a few weeks ago, knocked on my door, and handed me a “Special Delivery” box. Imagine that this was no ordinary parcel–it contained snapshots of the events of my near future. I might have opened it and seen pictures of the hard and painful events in my life and in the lives of my extended family, and I would have been tempted to reject it.

Mr. Mailman? Would you come back, please, and take this box away? It’s too hard. It doesn’t make sense.

I might have said, “No, thank you.”

“No” to the traffic accident,

“No” to the pile of time-consuming paperwork,

“No” to two scheduled ear surgeries,

“No” to the stomach “bug” that set up camp in my house,

and “No” to the respiratory virus on its coattails,

“No” to the sudden trip to the hospital with appendicitis,

“No” to the annoying loss of internet service,

“No” to the vexing mechanical issues,

“No” to the shared heartaches and the sudden tears.

I would have said “no” to the painful, the scary, and the just-plain irritating parts of life.

But I’m glad God is God, and I am not,

because if I hadn’t continued to unpack the special delivery box, I wouldn’t have discovered the box seemed to be bottomless, like the widow’s jar of olive oil.  Every snapshot of God’s grace would have another one beneath it. The more I looked, the more I found.

I would have missed out on the satisfying “Yes, thank you” to the unending examples of God’s loving kindness.

“Yes” to the sunshine and shadow of my life,

“Yes” to the answered prayers for my family,

“Yes” to the completed harvest,

“Yes” to the marvelous skills of medical professionals,

“Yes” to the opportunities to reflect,

“Yes” to glories underfoot and overhead,

“Yes” to my surprising, unbelievable, crazy life.

I will say “Yes” to God and to the whole bittersweet box of my future. I’m glad I don’t know what my future holds.

Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.   Matthew 6:34   MSG

Hallelujah!
You who serve God, praise God!
    Just to speak his name is praise!
Just to remember God is a blessing—
    now and tomorrow and always.
From east to west, from dawn to dusk,
    keep lifting all your praises to God!

Psalm 113:1-3   MSG

Thanks to Kris for inspiring the theme and title.