I almost missed it. There I was, so busy feeling sorry for myself because of my continuing lower back trouble that when the doorbell rang, all I could think of was the annoying fact that I had to get up to answer it. I asked the delivery man to put the box he was holding on the floor for me and decided not to open it at first. After all, I knew what was in it.
Soon curiosity got the better of me, however, and I opened the box to find twenty brand spanking new books there, hot off the press. I took one back to my bed and flipped through it.
‘That’s nice,’ I thought – then put it aside, still determined to feel sorry for myself.
Not long after, my husband came home.
‘A present for you,’ he said cheerily, as he threw a small parcel from our letterbox onto my bed.
In it, I found three audio CDs I also knew were coming.
‘That’s nice,’ I thought – and put them aside as well.
But then a challenging thought managed to worm its way through the cloak of self-pity I had wrapped firmly around me.
‘Look at you! You prayed this morning for God to encourage you – and now you’re letting this “dog in the manger” attitude spoil everything. Open your eyes! Wake up!’
I did just that. I picked up the book and CDs again and looked carefully at them. They were complimentary gifts, sent to say ‘thank you’ to me. You see, the book was ’40 Aussie Stories’, just released by Strand Publishing, and among those stories were two of my blogs I had written for this very site during the past year. I had not submitted them to be included in this collection. Instead, the publisher had somehow found my blogs online and written to ask if he could use two or three of them in his book. And of course I was very happy for him to do so.
As for the CDs, they were from the Christian Blind Mission International in Melbourne. Some time back I had provided them with copies of my novels to record for people with print disabilities. I knew the first three had been professionally narrated and recorded, and now my contact there had sent me copies of these. As I examined them, I noted they had been narrated by Joy Westmore, a well-known Australian actor who has starred in various TV series such as ‘Prisoner’, ‘Neighbours’ and ‘Blue Heelers’, as well as playing many stage and screen roles.
I saw then how blessed I was that my writing had been used in such interesting ways to minister to others. But on top of that, here was God arranging that these gifts would arrive within minutes of each other on the very day I most needed encouragement. This was God’s grace reaching out to me, I realised – and I had nearly missed it.
In Hebrews 12:15 we read:
See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.
I had almost fallen into that trap – despite having written a novel with this specific verse as its theme! I immediately paused to thank God yet again for rescuing me and encouraging me in such amazing and timely way.
How about you? Have you missed out on seeing God’s grace at work in your own life lately?
Jo-Anne Berthelsen's Blog 