December 26 – “A Set of Knives”

We started our day today by going shopping.  Yep.  I can't believe it either.  The day after Christmas and I'm going to a mall.  On Purpose.  Actually we started with the daily WalMart stop.  This time we were getting in on the after Christmas Christmas stuff sale.  We couldn't get too much since we don't have much storage space.  But now we're all set for wrapping stuff next year, barring another flood, of course.   Then we went to get in on some specific sales Chris had located in the paper.  We were on a mission to replace some of the things we lost in the flood.  The two prime targets were a set of silverware and a set of knives.  We also planned to check out some garage door openers that were on sale at Sears.  Now, you have to understand that the garage door openers were located in the same department as the tools.  All the tools.  Even the power tools.  Especially the power tools.    It's also important that you know about the big tree in our front yard.  The one closest to the house with the huge limb pointing straight out toward the street.  We noticed the other day some new cracks in the slab that is our front porch.  Then we noticed that the old tree was looking worse than usual.  Quite a bit worse.  It looks like it's finally ready to fall over.  Now that wouldn't be all that bad a thing, except that those roots would for sure rip up the porch, and there's a good chance part of the foundation would be ruined as well.  Now if that had happened during the storm, we wouldn't have had to go through all the grief of worrying about being in the yellow zone.  We would have just drilled our post holes and built right on up there with our back deck.  But not now.  Not after all that work we've done.  Not after the two and a half hour meeting we had with our contractor friend this afternoon to finalize framing plans so he could get some things rolling.  Not now.   Which brings me back to the power tools at Sears.  We decided to add a purchase to our list of expenditures to come out of our contents money.  We bought a chain saw.  Aaar.  Aar.  Aar.  And Monday Nathan is coming over to "show me how to use it."  I can't wait.   As exciting as getting the chain saw was, my God moment actually came earlier in the day when we bought the knives.  We picked the set up at Macy's without paying too much attention.  We left the ad in the car, but the price seemed to be the same, and it looked familiar to Chris.  We handed over the coupons and the gift card and headed out to the car.  Where Chris checked the ad and announced, "I'm taking it back.  It's not the right one."  Sure enough, the ad was for a 22 piece set, not the 15 piece one we bought.  And the sale price was even cheaper for the bigger set.  Needless to say, we took it back.  We had to go to a different Macy's and get some special attention from a very kind salesman, but we did finally find just the set she wanted.   Now about that God moment.  Have you ever expected one thing and been surprised to open up something totally different?  Maybe it was an experience like ours.  Maybe it was the biggest Christmas gift you ever saw, but inside was just progressively smaller wrapped box after wrapped box, until finally you open the last one and it's just a penny.  Sometimes things aren't what they seem to be on the outside.  Remember what the angels told the shepherds on Christmas?  "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:11).  Great expectations.  "This will be a sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."  Unexpected packaging.   Father, thank you for the surprises you throw our way.   Thanks most of all for your Christmas surprise.  Amen.