The guests have gone, the house hushed, comparative silence broken occasionally by the exuberant, echoing squawks of an active six-month-old. Same place, same people, same things (more and less) as just a week ago. And yet in the interim, such flurries of activity the air still rings with them.
Some would say that having to have surgery the day before Christmas is awful timing. What about the guests? The plans? All of the comings and goings, the preparations, the buying and eating disrupted! By pain and suffering, no less, and worries and fears and separations. How awful!
And yet I say, how awe-ful! Amazing! What have I done to deserve such gifts? I genuinely don’t know, and the wonder of it all leaves me somewhat dumbfounded.
I’ve known for a few months that I’d need the surgery, sooner or later. I worried about the logistics, scheduling, etc. Time off for DH, care for the baby and dogs, all the rest. Not mention how to get the ball rolling – do you just walk into a doctor’s office and announce you want your gall bladder removed? I still don’t know the answer to that one. What I got instead was a surprise visit to a nice little hospital with a wait-free ER (thanks to Linda!), dear friends to watch the baby, in-laws coming the next day whom I love and trust completely and who were determined to take care of house, baby, dogs and husband until I came home (which they did with great gusto), friends of DH bearing gifts for the family, and a near Dickensian Christmas morning homecoming, minus any Scroogey bits. All for the price of a few moments’ pain, quickly forgotten. We still have food for an army, we made some new friends (new to me, anyway) and some good memories, and I think – I’m fairly sure – a Good Time Was Had by All.
Man plans; God laughs. But if you’re paying attention, the laughter is Good-natured, and the disruptions to our laughty plans, more often than not, are the best thing that could have happened. So ordinary, really, yet so miraculous.
I can’t count my blessings, there are simply too many of them. All I can do is give thanks.
-o.o-
A Work in Progress 
Disappointments are HisAppointments!
Well, done. 🙂
“And yet I say, how awe-ful! Amazing! What have I done to deserve such gifts? I genuinely don’t know, and the wonder of it all leaves me somewhat dumbfounded.”
Truly, these ordinary miracles are extra-ordinary!
“I can’t count my blessings, there are simply too many of them. All I can do is give thanks.”
Aye. God’s laughter is comforting. :^)
To Julie! The richest woman in Bedford Falls!
😀
I am grateful that things work in mysterious ways for us sometimes. Our paths are guided by a greater hand.
We were happy that you and Sean trusted us as your back-up…..anytime you need us, we are there.
That sounds like a pretty good Christmas.
We look forward to things perhaps too much, as if that’s supposed to be healthy. But looking backward is so much richer and fully contained, is it not? Pain becomes story and story becomes shared confirmation of miracles – not so ordinary after all.