Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

I had a really, really bad day.

I had so many people just unbelievably rude to me for no reason, speaking to me the way no human being should speak to another human being, making me feel about an inch tall. I had a problem that I couldn't resolve right away, but did within ten minutes, and within those ten minutes an email of complaint about me made it's way thru several channels and into my boss's inbox. When in the end, after ten minutes, there was no problem!

Just a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

So finally, late in the afternoon when I finally got away for my lunch break I went to the grocery store. I bought chocolate chips. I bought brownie mix. I bought cake mix and icing. Still not feeling quite better and knowing I could not enjoy any of these things til I got home, I went to the gas station and got a fountain Diet Coke. (The irony, huh?) Surely a wonderfully carbonated fountain soda would do the trick. And then I saw them, there at the cash register. Giant Smarties. Have you had these giant Smarties? I just discovered them recently, and I am in love. I have always loved Smarties, when I was a little girl there was a wonderful lady who always handed out Smarties and other candy after church, and every time I eat them it's a sweet (ha - I didn't even realize that I made a pun!) memory of childhood - but that's a story for another day.

So I grab three of these amazing treats and go to check out. After multiple attempts, the cashier could not get them to scan. With a line of people behind me and no hope of getting them to scan, the cashier just told me to take them. Just take them! For free!

And suddenly, my day has brightened. The light drizzle that leads to my frizzy hair? No biggie. All those people who were so hateful? Completely forgotten. I have just received three rolls of Giant Smarties for free. I am now invincible. My spirits lifted.

Then I realized just how completely silly that all is. Free Smarties made my day better? A total savings of 75 cents? How is it that free Smarties have changed my day when I failed to even think about the free gift that has changed not only my life, but my death? How is it that immediately I seek pointless, worthless things to fill the need for love and reassurance and joy and completely ignore my Savior who loved me enough to bear the cross for me? Maybe I should have gotten some Dum-Dums, because that is seriously what I am.

How does realization that I have a loving Father and a gracious Savior not do enough to put me in focus? That the worst of days are just blinks of an eye that I will one day have no memory of when I see His face and hold His hand?

Because I'm an emotional, short-sighted human I want to say that just knowing Him doesn't make it all go away. But it so does. He's the kiss on the boo-boo that makes it all better. He's the tight hug from my husband that makes me feel safe and warm. He is all of that and so much more.

And without Him, I would know what it's like to truly have a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

Emily