A Lesson In Grace

I sit in my apartment listening to English on iTunes and sometimes forget that I live in Germany.  Once out the door, however, the reminders overwhelm me.  December 15th became such a time.

Smitty's sister and her family had scheduled a visit to us this holiday season.  In sending emails back and forth, we discussed the dates they would be with us.  They would fly into Zurich, train to Basel and  We would meet them at the Central Bahnhof later in the morning.  Completely forgetting that when one leaves the US to come to Europe arrival will be a day later, Smitty and I took off for the train station on what we thought was the appointed morning.   Of greater concern was the trip into Basel to find the correct station and proper parking.

Once there we managed the location and parking quite nicely.  But Trish and her family never arrived.  After several hours of waiting and unsuccessful attempts to reach her, we left and drove home.  Once back in our safe apartment, I checked her emails, thinking that I had misread 8PM for 8AM.  I realized my mistake when I noticed that their plane would arrive at 8AM, Sunday the 16th!  How very dumb I felt.

Carolyn, Smitty, Trish, Dennis, Andrew in Basel

Several hours later a friend came by and reminded me that I do not live a routine life.  Daily I face written and verbal messages which I cannot easily understand.  Living in a culture different from my own requires focus and intentionality, and sometimes I am just too tired for either.  Places I go are rarely easy to find.  And teaching chemistry has taken a great deal more time and effort than I had first anticipated.  At that point I remembered something the BFA personnel director told us last year:  "Give yourself lots of grace."

Grace-unmerited favor-forgiveness for mistakes-thankfulness.  Yes, I need lots of grace.  I have not chosen the life I live, but I can choose to live in the light of the grace God has given me and minister some of that grace to myself.

We droe back to Basel on the 16th and retrieved Smitty's sister in grace.