Gifts come in all shapes.
A few days ago the back doorbell rang. I went to answer it, but no one was there. Then as I stood there it rang again — with no one pushing it. That in itself was no mystery. Sometimes a particularly vigorous finger on the button will make the bell stick, so that it keeps ringing over and over until someone unsticks it. Still, I did hesitate to open the door, in case someone was hiding behind one of the cars or just around the corner of the building, ready to pounce on me as soon as the door was opened.
So I peered around as far as I could see through the little window in the back door. All of a sudden my eye landed on something new in the driveway: a blue and gray concrete block. What was that doing there? Then I thought, oh, just a silly prank. Some kids left the block, rang the doorbell, and ran off.
But I obviously couldn’t leave the block where it was, so out I stomped, heedless of anyone who might be lurking with criminal intent. I bent down to pick up the block—which refused to budge. I tried again, and this time my flabby muscles managed to shift it far enough from the middle of the driveway that it no longer posed a hazard to people or cars. I returned, annoyed, to the house.
Several days later, Carol , the formerly homeless, mentally ill woman (see “Being Scorned” and “Rocking and Bobbing“) came by, and the mystery was solved.
“Did you like the pretty brick I brought you?”
“How did you get it here?” asked Sister Elizabeth.
“On my bike,” she said. “I carried it with one hand and rode with the other.”
The concrete block that I had barely been able to move and that we didn’t know how to dispose of, a worthless hunk of debris just a moment before, had taken on new value. It was a gift!
It is not always apparent at first glance that an object or an event is a gift. And it requires especially sensitive eyes to perceive that a vexation may really be a blessing bestowed on us with love.
‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’(2 Corinthians 12:9)
“All is grace.”
“Tout est grâce.”
(Thérèse of Lisieux)