The Unplanned Gift

So far, my new year has not gone as planned. I shouldn’t be surprised. After all, my New Year’s Day dinner date DID take a detour through the O.B. ward on the first day of 2011 (If you missed that story, see my January 3 post). And my laundry room DID flood on January 2, aromatizing our home with a wafting raw sewage fragrance. And two new mountain ranges DID grow up right beneath our roof by January 4. Mt. Dish–o–Rama rose from the surface once known as the kitchen counter as we banned the use of all water tied to the laundry room plumbing. And just beyond the stench of seeping sewage, the rainbow–colored foothills of Mt. Grungy Garment dared me to renounce my affinity for empty laundry baskets. Add to the unplanned plumbing fiasco a toddler whose New Year resolution appears to involve all night partying in her crib between the hours of 2A.M.- 5A.M. and a feverish first grader who has resorted to sitting on my lap rather than sitting in her mini–sized desk at school, and the result is a not–so–fresh-mommy who is ready to turn back the calendar to boring and predictable 2010.

Maybe I was simply delirious from sleep–deprivation this morning when I stumbled to the kitchen to pour myself a cup of pre–dawn coffee. Nevertheless, as my eyes landed on the dish–free kitchen counter (hooray for plumbers), I began to giggle at the UNPLANNED way the Lord has answered my New Year’s wish this week. I wanted fresh and new in 2011 and that’s exactly what I’ve been given. While a clean kitchen counter wasn’t a springboard for celebration last month, this morning it sparked a happy dance. Six plastic laundry baskets teeming with clean clothes have never looked (or smelled) so good. In His infinite wisdom, my Maker has used a stinky first week of January to gift me with a fresh sense of gratitude. The scent of lilac candles slowly winning the war against the left–over reek, the hum of the dishwasher steadily erasing the evidence of last night’s dinner on our red fiesta plates, the comfort of dry floor beneath my feet as I pad into the laundry room to fill the waiting washing machine with the first load of the day– these are my humble hallelujahs today, on this sixth day of the new year.

And my NEW prayer is simply this: Open my eyes to your gifts, dear Lord. I want 2011 to be marked by a FRESH sense of gratitude!

Overflow: Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe… Hebrews 12:28