Grace for the Horn-Honkers

I had just left a meeting at Children’s Hospital and was walking across the parking deck. The place was packed. The concrete citadel was loaded with automobiles plus hurried and worried people and I had previously struggled with a place to park.

I was weaving through the maze of cars and traffic, trying to remember where I had parked (just ask Gigi…that is always an adventure), when out-of-the-blue, a man zipped up behind me in his little black Beemer and blared down on his horn.

To say that I was startled would be inadequate. He nearly scared my lunch back out of me. (Yep, I went there.)

The horn’s honk resounded throughout the concrete walls and pillars, and I felt like I would have a stroke. It’s not like I was some 90-year-old, barely shuffling to my parking space…I am not yet 30 and was moving at a reasonable pace.

I was shocked, scared, stroking-out, and ANGRY.

Can I say that I was pissed? Well, I was pissed.

WHAT IN THE WORLD WAS HE THINKING?! WHO DID HE THINK HE WAS?! Whether I had taken two seconds or three seconds to pass in front of his vehicle really made no difference…but apparently it did to him. He was beyond impatient and I was more than aggravated. I had a few words I wanted to share with the gentleman, and I wanted to teach him some sign language as well. (I do know quite a few signs that would have fit this scenario quite well.)

And then there’s Grace.

Grace for the impatient businessman. Or was it Grace for the father, hurrying to see his little girl before surgery? I will never know, but he deserves Grace for his erratic behavior, just like I deserved Grace for hurriedly weaving through traffic to make it to that same assignment on time.

The same Grace that has always been afforded to me, is afforded to every impatient so-and-so that drives us all crazy at 5 o’clock and that Grace calls us all to freely give away what we have been given.

We must pray for patience and Grace to deal with all we come in contact with, every moment of every day, with the very same Love that was poured out for us all those years ago. We may not know their stories, but rest assured that each person we meet has a story.

There is Grace for the horn-honkers of the world and, thankfully, there is Grace for you and me.

ATTIC,
Steve

Matthew 5:14-16 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.