Grace with Double Vision. (Pun Intended)

So I want to share with you about the faithfulness of God shown through His people toward me lately.

After my mom got sick, she said that God spoke to her heart once as she was being infused with chemotherapy treatments. He said he liked to double things. That He was a doubler. That we could never outgive him. That He did unexpected, extravagant things. She said for a little while when the tumors were shrinking at that point she felt like god was giving her double the chemo with twice the side effects. I always brushed her off because I wasn't sure what that meant--and then something happened on Friday that reminded me of that. I could hear her saying it.


Some dear friends of mine did a wonderful thing for me last week. They are married with the cutest children you have ever seen. I met them through Emmaus in 2005 and I have always thought they were the coolest family-loving and serving the Lord (and adopting a baby from China...such a cool story--maybe I can get them to do a guest blog...) The husband has an optometry practice, and I decided that I wanted to support them because they have supported me so faithfully-with things like their prayers, kind words about the blog, and supporting my trip to Haiti. (They are also humble because they are probably cringing by now.)
First of all, I love going into his office because it seems that his employees are happy to be there and I feel God's presence when I walk in. I can tell that he cares about his patients because he always asks how my dad and I are doing.

I wanted to get some new eyeglasses, and I went looking for them a couple of weeks ago. I had it narrowed down to two pairs when my eye doctor walked in. He began cracking jokes about how one pair made me look like Rob Bell's wife. The other pair was a pinkish-red pair of Vera Bradley glasses with the Picadilly Plum pattern on the side (I love Vera, yes I do. I love Vera, how 'bout you?). They were, how do you say, slightly less practical than the brownish/blackish ones, so I decided that they made more sense. But before I left, I looked longingly at the Very Bradley eyeglass case. I decided it was too much money and went with the case that came with the glasses.

Fast forward to last Friday. Only one of my friends' employees works on Friday. On my lunch break, my friend Tiffany and I hopped in the car and drove (read: sped) to Princeton. I walked into the office and she had me sit down. Curiously, she had the eyeglass case for the ones I had purchased plus the Vera Bradley case that she sat down on the table. I was perplexed and was ready to explain that I had decided against buying the Vera case. She fit my first pair of glasses (she is really sweet by the way--Thanks Crystal!)

and then


she pulled out the PAIR OF VERA GLASSES FROM THE CASE. I remember several things running through my head all quicklike--maybe they did the order wrong, maybe there's a promotion-buy one get one half off, maybe they just wanted to show them to me again.... I gave her a weird look, that look that Mr. Schroeder used to give me in eighth grade math class when I didn't know how to do my homework, and she smiled.

"Dr. ____ got these for you."

Okay, That Girl was shocked. You are reading the blog of the one who successfully guessed every single Christmas gift Seth got her last year. The one who bugged her friends until they told her of the surprise party planned in her honor. I'm THAT GIRL.

I was so surprised I almost wet myself. I gave Crystal a hug, asked her if she was sure (as if...they had to make the lenses for me--I wasn't thinking straight...) and pretty much skipped my way to the car, and I breathlessly told Tiffany what had happened. We praised God and prayed for blessings to fall on this beautiful family.

You know, God kept telling me all afternoon on Firday that He is EXTRAVAGANT in the way He loves us. I didn't deserve those glasses, and honestly, I didn't need them. I had bought the other pair already, and that could have been the end of it. For some reason, God wanted to teach me something about grace.

Grace is much like my really cool pair of Vera Bradleys. I do not deserve such a beautiful gift. i didn't do anything at all to earn them. If I had worked enough, I could have bought them, but then it wouldn't have been grace, right? Not to mention that they were pretty much the coolest pair of glasses in the store. it wasn't like they gave me second best as my free gift, they gave the best they had. Hmmm.

Sounds like Someone else I know.

Thank you to my dear friends. I didn't mention your name in this blog because I know that you don't want the credit. Please accept my grateful heart for bringing the grace of God down to a level that both my readers and I can understand. You are the best, and I know that God is using you richly in our community of faith as you look for ways to bless others. I love you!

To my readers--
If you do not understand the concept of grace and have never accepted a NEW PAIR OF GLASSES to see life differently through the lens of Someone named Jesus, please please please email me and let's talk about what Grace is.