Let Grace Flow

 It’s officially day one of the Staycation of 2020 (who’s vacation isn’t a staycation).

It’s tradition for me to give blood when I’m on vacation.  I hate needles and finger pricks, but I love the fact that my blood might help someone.  It’s the only time I get to be a superhero.  

You have to eat a good breakfast, which I didn’t because I woke up late.  And you have to LOWER your caffeine intake. (What kind of welfare witchcraft Hocus Pocus hoedown is this?  Do these people not KNOW that I don’t even speak an identifiable language before coffee?)

So this morning, after smarting from TWO whole finger pricks (my hemoglobin tried to play games this morning), I wandered my way to the donation center.  While the phlebotomist swabbed my arm down with iodine.  I pretended to be cool about it, but I’m going to keep it 100, I was waiting for that needle stick.

You never know what kind of needle stick it’s going to be.  It could be the “pinch” that is the stuff of myths.  You might be lucky to get the one that you don’t even realize happened.  This morning for me?  Cow-killer sting. The phlebotomist was an absolute sweetheart.  But this needle insertion felt like someone smacked fire and brimstone into my veins.  Once the needle went in, she asked, “Everything OK?”

I did not like it.  Not on little bit.  

But as I sat there and contemplated my sneakers and the little squirrel on the other side of the window trying to crack an acorn, I realized that the pain was worth the miracle of a blood donation.  A blood donation is a gift that you give to a person without deciding IF they deserve it.  You don’t get to decide if they are Black, White, Latino, immigrant, Republican or Democrat.  It’s given because it’s needed.  And the cool thing about my blood is that it replenishes itself.

And then I had a moment.  Blood and grace are very similar.  We all need grace and we are all capable of giving it.  God gives us grace and does it without holding our flaws against us. His grace and mercy renew every morning.

So if God gives you grace every day, learn to deal with the pinch of giving it to someone else, someone who needs forgiveness, someone who needs kindness, someone who needs and ear, someone who needs comfort.  

Thank God that He doesn’t give us what we deserve, He gives us what we need.