Have you noticed how so many snacks now come in mini scaled portions? There are 100 calorie packs of many popular national brands of cookies. There are “2 bite” brownies in the bakery section. Ghiardelli, Hershey, and other chocolatiers are selling bags with assorted fancy chocolates wrapped in bite-sized squares. The deli often offers bite-sized samples of gourmet cheeses or meats. And there are those interesting little cooking displays in the stores that offer bite-sized freshly cooked samples of various dishes with all the ingredients in a cooler beside it so you can try before you buy! Don’t you just love those “little bite-sized pieces of perfection”?
Today a friend forwarded me one of those e-mail Merry Christmas wishes with fun snowman pictures that included the wishes that follow:
“Today…I wish you a day of ordinary miracles-
A fresh pot of coffee you didn’t have to make yourself.
An unexpected phone call from an old friend.
Green stoplights on your way to work or shop.
I wish you a day of little things to rejoice in…
The fastest line at the grocery store.
A good sing along song on the radio.
Your keys right where you look.
I wish you a day of happiness and perfection – little bite-size pieces of perfection
that give you the funny feeling that the Lord is smiling on you,
holding you so gently because you are someone special and rare.
I wish You a day of Peace, Happiness and Joy.”
I was enchanted by the phrase ” –little bite-size pieces of perfection that give you the funny feeling that the Lord is smiling on you, holding you so gently because you are someone special and rare. I had one of those days today.
A Sunday School class that I teach had a luncheon and invited me to join them. One of the members had on a really lovely black sweater with cardinals and holly appliques. I complimented her and asked where she’d gotten such a pretty holiday sweater. She said she’d gotten it, priced half off, at a recently opened department store in town. I had not yet visited the store, so I took the opportunity after leaving the luncheon to go by and see if there might be one in my size on the rack. When I arrived I saw a number of holiday sweaters, but nothing as dressy and appealing as the one I was seeking. After about a 20 minute search, I asked a clerk who directed me to a corner section I had already thoroughly searched. I decided that it was another case of me being “a day late” and, giving up, I decided to just browse around the store and check out the other departments. I strolled around the housewares, holiday decorating, and children’s departments, picking up a few items for gifts, and then came to the ladies petite section. There they were…..a rack with the sweaters in the petite department! My friend had mentioned that she wore a petite, but that the sweater had been available in misses sizes, as well. I reasoned that it was unlikely that there would be any my size on a rack in the petite section, but I remembered what my mother in law, who was a superb bargain finder, always said, “Don’t pay any attention to the department or the sizes. You have to just go through the rack and try things on.” So I headed for the rack and began flipping through the hangers. Every one was a tagged PS, PM, or PL (petite small, petite medium, or petite large) EXCEPT………1, and it was MY SIZE! I grabbed the hanger, did a double take on the tag to make sure I wasn’t just seeing what I wanted to see. Then I took it off the hanger and tried it on. Sure enough, it was just right! And that feeling hit me…..it was a moment like a “little bite-size piece of perfection that gives you the funny feeling that the Lord is smiling on you, holding you so gently because you are someone special and rare.”
I smiled to myself, but also to God, thanking Him for giving me such a sweet, intimate blessing. God knows what cardinals mean to me and how happy I will be to wear that lovely sweater.
Last winter a national pharmacy chain’s advertising offerred enticing glimpses of life in a place called “Perfect”, then suggested that their stores were necessary because none of us actually live in a place called “Perfect”. Everytime I saw the ads I was tempted to say, “Boy, isn’t that the truth! Life certainly isn’t perfect! ” The degree of falleness, of imperfection, in the world becomes more and more obvious to us, it seems, the older we get. And yet, on days like today life does seem, for the briefest of moments perhaps, perfect! It reminds me that there are ordinary miracles happening around me every day…. that God is at work in ways that are sometimes not so obvious. He invites me to use spiritual vision to see Him in the every day little events where He is blessing and providing for his children.
So, I wish you a day of ordinary miracles…….a day of happiness and perfection – little bite-size pieces of perfection that give you the funny feeling that the Lord is smiling on you, holding you so gently because you are someone special and rare!