Have grace today.

I want to share a story with you. A story to illustrate what grace is.

A few weeks ago Reese was going for daily blood draws. Being that he was a brand new baby they would make a small cut on his heel and then milk it for blood. This seemed as painful as it sounds. It had gotten to the point where Reese would give a pitiful little cry when anyone would touch his little feet. He had bandaids and little cuts in different stages of healing all over his feet. It was a difficult time for us to go through. (Even now we are not done with the whole Jaundice thing. Reese had blood drawn from his neck last week to check his liver function since he is still a buttery shade of yellow, please be in prayer for that)

When he was 6 days old we were told that he was in the all clear and that he would not need another blood draw, but when we went to the dr. for out post postpartum check up the dr. decided that he was still too yellow and we would need ANOTHER blood draw.
We packed him in the car and as he sat there content and unaware of the coming pain I just felt so lost. I was still in a lot of pain from the c-section, and David and I were both exhausted from our first week with a new born. Seeing that Reese was also a preemie, we were told to not have anyone near him for at least 8 weeks because his immune system was non-existent.  This in itself caused a lot of stress. I would stay up at night to make sure that his lungs stayed open, I was terrified they would relapse and he would need to go back to the NICU and back on the CPAPP machine. I also knew that the outcome of this blood draw may mean that Reese would be admitted in the hospital again. That was my biggest fear.

When we got Pathcare a car stopped at the same time as us and an elderly couple got out. I could tell the lady was having trouble walking, she seemed to be in a lot of pain. I am not proud of this, but instead of helping them, or letting them go ahead of us, I raced to the door to be first. This is not at all how I would normally act. After we were checked in we sat down to wait and the old lady was checked in. She told the nurse in broken English that standing up from sitting was excruciating for her so they needed to let her sit in the waiting room and the person would come out to draw her blood.

When I was our turn they took Reese and started to rub his foot, I ran from the room. I ran all the way outside where I stood and cried like a fool. When I turned around this old lady was standing behind me. She followed me out. She was German, so I have no idea what she was saying but she was talking to me in German, and she embraced me. I needed that hug, that comfort on that day more than ever. She had no idea what we were going through. That I was in pain, exhausted and all that. All she knew about me wast that I was the rude person who made sure to jump in front of her. But she had grace with me. She stood up from her chair, even thought it hurt her, (and I did not deserve it!) to come and comfort me.

We know from the New Testament that grace from God  is the blessings, love and forgiveness He gives us even though we don't deserve it. Have grace with people today, you never know what they are going through.