Surprising Grace

My regular blood chemistry test was due two months ago. I kept postponing it because, aside from being terrified of needles and blood, I dread the results.

Something had always been amiss, like a decimal point or two. These could make you go bonkers—more meds, more needle pricks, more exercises, less food.

In those two months of postponement, I prayed and prayed for good results. So finally, I gathered enough boldness to do it or I’d get a gentle tut-tutting from my doctor.

When the piece of paper bearing the results was handed to me, I closed my eyes, trying to muster enough courage to look at my numbers. Very, very slowly I opened one eye and . . .

For the first time in three years, or more, every decimal point was within normal values. N-O-R-M-A-L.

What, a, surprise!  

I was so ecstatic I told my friend Doreen, the first person I saw in church, about my blood-test epic.  

With knitted brows she asked, “You said you prayed and prayed for it, and yet you’re surprised?”  

Ooops. I prayed and prayed because I was afraid. Yet why would God’s grace surprise me?

The Bible reminds us that Jesus calms the storms in our lives and we should never be afraid.    

“ . . . ‘You of little faith, why are you so afraid?’ Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.” Matthew 8:26 (NIV)