Happy, happy, happy Monday!

There’s a fresh coat of snow outside my door and a fresh calendar page in front of me and yes, it’s true that the week is filling up fast and it’s barely 10 on a Monday morning, but even so…even so.

I choose to believe that this week before Christmas will be filled with grace.

That grace will be – is – hidden in plain sight for me to discover, savor, delight in.

I choose to believe, and it is a choice, that if I really look (and maybe really looking up from our busyness is the hardest thing this time of year), I’ll really see.

That if I really look, I’ll see Grace and God in the shuffle of the elderly gentleman in the store, looking for the perfect card to give his wife even after all these years. If I really look I might just find grace and gift in the sales clerk who’s offering a smile even though this has got to be one of the hardest times of the year to work as a clerk in retail.

That in the last minute rush of shopping, waiting in lines that seem not to move, I’ll see that pair of elf slippers in someone’s cart and know that somewhere on Christmas morning there’ll be a child putting them on, those little bells stitched atop the toes ringing out joy, and little eyes delighting at the wonder of Christmas morning. And wonder of wonders, Grace even in the checkout line!
“And when I give thanks for the seemingly microscopic, I make a place for God to grow within me.” (~Ann Voskamp)
If I look for it.

Honest? There’s grace everywhere, if you look for it.

Actually, there’s grace everywhere even if you don’t look for it.

~xo,
LuAnne