A Turkey In Her Own Right

 Last night I started with pain in my lower back and by this afternoon, it turned into an excruciating pain that shot through my entire back and left side of my stomach.   Instead of driving out to meet my family, I ended up making a trip to urgent care.  Traffic was horrible so instead of making it to my destination in 15 minutes, it took me about 45 minutes.  When I finally arrived at the office around 6pm, I found that this medical office had closed down. I was redirected to another office in the next city.  As I drove through another maze of traffic, I began to yell at a couple of other drivers who couldn't seem to get their act together on the road (because I, of course, am the perfect driver).  Once I arrived at urgent care, I waited for what seemed like hours, collected a prescription, and left more grumpy than ever.   I continued to complain the whole time and began having a honking fest with a couple of other incompetent drivers.  Right when I was about to exit towards my apartment did I realize that I forgot to pick up the turkeys for Christmas day.  Now here's the scoop. Someone else in my family was supposed to make the turkey, but told me over the weekend that they decided to do a roast instead of a turkey for our holiday celebration.  Well, this upset me because who has ever heard of Christmas without a turkey?  Seriously.  Why can't people stick to family traditions?  When I voiced my concern, this person passed the baton over to me, so now I was stuck making the turkey.  So as I walked through the market, with that aching back pain, my sour expression, and even worse sour mood, it took every ounce within me not throw a fit right there in the middle of he aisle (I ended up doing that later when I returned to my car).  When I realized that they might arrest me for such a scene, I decided to act grown-up and go find that darn turkey.  I did, and of course it was double the price for a thawed out turkey- $50.00! I grabbed that turkey and thought about flinging it across the aisle, but fortunately, I forced myself be civilized, although I'm sure the turkey felt my disgust.  I marched to the counter, paid for it and walked out still heated, furious, and frustrated. I should be drinking hot chocolate with my family at the Mission Inn this evening, laughing and ready to celebrate the most beautiful day and the most beautiful being on earth, Jesus Christ.  Instead, I was mad at my family, mad at myself, and mad at that darn turkey.  I knew I needed grace, but I didn't have the guts to ask God for it because let's be honest,  I knew that I didn't deserve it.  I  was then gently reminded that grace wouldn't be grace if it was deserved.  Jesus wasn't born and crucified for our sins because we deserved it.  The Bible says that God demonstrated his love for us while we were STILL sinners (Romans 5:8).  He didn't wait for us to get cleaned up, but poured his grace on us despite our sin. What a powerful gift!  That's truly what Christmas is all about and it took a day like this to remind me of that. So I'm home now. All is now calm, all is well. Maybe today didn't turn out as expected, but tomorrow, God is giving me another chance to make it better.  Tomorrow is a new day filled with fresh grace and mercies- maybe not for that poor turkey (Yum!), but most certainly for me, a turkey in her own right.