“There is a large pile of snow boots by the back door. Later today, the kids and I are going to figure out which cross-country skis fit everyone,” I said to Zach as he headed out the door to work. Not five minutes later I found him sitting in the living room with a grimace on his face. “I didn’t want to get my socks wet so I jumped over a pile of snow and landed on the pile of boots. I heard a pop.”
Sympathy should have been my first response, but this would be the second time I was visiting the urgent care in a week’s time. On Saturday I had taken four sick kids to the doctor. They all were diagnosed with strep throat. Upon arriving home, we pulled into our driveway and our garage door wouldn’t open. Our house had lost power due to a snow storm. We made dinner on an outside barbeque and gave the kids baths by candlelight. The storm continued, and we had school closures and canceled activities off and on for the remainder of the week.
I had already done my nurturing duties. It didn’t seem fair that I was headed back to the urgent care, this time for my husband. X-rays confirmed it. Zach had broken a bone in his right foot. For seven weeks he would need to be in an air cast. No weight-bearing. No driving.
Honestly, I’m a merciful person. I consider mercy one of my spiritual gifts. The problem was, at that particular moment, I was quenching the Spirit.
My prayer is that as I spiritually mature, I would be able to approach a crisis by first obeying God and asking questions later. This was not that moment.
I was thankful that Zach was not seriously injured, and I did desire to love him well in his moment of weakness. I was also aware that when God intercepts your plans, it is often because He wants to use you or teach you something. I was caught in whiplash. One moment I was praying to God to open my eyes to what He wanted me to see, and the next moment slamming my eyes shut and stomping my feet.
The foot stomping usually occurred when I remembered a job that would for the next seven weeks be my responsibility. The kid that needed to be picked up at a certain time, garbage day, dishes, lugging chicken waterer and feed bags, and night driving. Remember the snow storm I mentioned? Yep, snow shoveling was also mine to do.
With Zach being injured, I quickly realized how many of our mechanical things needed his particular touch. He is incredibly mechanically minded, but unfortunately for me, that means there is also a certain level of mechanical understanding required to make our equipment run. I do not have the “jimmy-rig” gene. Snow shoveling would be done by hand. Chicken coop doors would be opened the good old fashioned way. Zach is one of the few people I know that could create an automatic chicken door opener using an electric screwdriver. And while I appreciate this gift, no one comes to me when one of these contraptions isn’t working right.
I believe God has a great sense of humor. As I was mulling over all of my frustrations, a verse from 1st Peter popped into my head.
“Show hospitality to one another without grumbling” 1 Peter 4:9.
I had never considered that hospitality was something that I was supposed to show people within my own home. Wasn’t that just something for guests? Not this time. God was expanding my capacity to show hospitality and that was to include the members of my household.
The dictionary defines hospitable as, “pleasant and favorable for living in.” Was I making my home a place that made it pleasant and favorable for Zach to recover? Or was he filled with guilt and shame for being injured?
This verse is so intriguing to me. Why did Peter feel the need to add on the phrase “without grumbling?” Is grumbling often associated with hospitality? Perhaps we’re not all as happy of hosts as we appear to be. I suppose if our hospitality is to be without grumbling, it is also to be without sarcasm.
Without passive aggressiveness.
Without stubbornness.
Without resentment.
I have so far to go.
I have moments of feeling broken over my selfishness only to realize that everything about my body language is screaming, “I need you to keep your distance!” It is no wonder that Christ had to exemplify servanthood for us while He walked on this earth. It is not in our human nature. And yet nothing exudes Christ more.
I was right. When God interrupts your schedule, He does have something to teach you. I’m sure this is just the beginning for me.
Hopefully, my husband is also in the Scriptures and perhaps he will stumble onto another one of Peter’s verses. “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins” 1 Peter 4:8. Lord knows I’m going to have a lot of sins that need covering these next few weeks.