A Tuesday Blessing

“Mmmhh,” I breathed, stretching, as I turned to look at my clock. 3:15 in the morning. “Oh!” I sat up, remembering the deal I'd made with God the night before. “All right, God. You woke me up. That means I've got to get to work by 4:00.”

I'd been stressing constantly about how much needed to be done at work, and I needed a chance to go in the peaceful hours of the morning and see how much I could get done. So, I dragged myself out of bed, went through the proper motions of preparing myself for the day, and 3:47 found me walking up the hill to the school where I work.

I peered forward through sleep-bleared eyes, wishing I could turn around and crawl back into my bed for the next four hours. But, after a few minutes in the crisp, snowy air, my mind became a little more alert, and I began planning where I would begin. My walk slowed, when a sudden movement caught my attention.

On the road ahead of me stood a large dark animal. I peered at it, intently. A moose? my heart leaped at the thought. No, not a moose. A doe. We gazed at each other, as I continued toward her, slowly. As I drew too near, she turned and bounded gracefully up the hill she had just meandered down. I watched her go, again reminded of God's care for each of us. For me, it seems that every animal I see, when I'm alone, is a little greeting from God to me, personally.

The rest of my walk was spent talking to my Creator, thanking Him for the day and for life. Before I was ready, I reached my destination. Slowly, I changed into my slippers, then flipped on a hall light so that I could make my way up the stairs to my office.

A few hours later, the rest of the world woke up, and some of them began to make their way into my office. I had accomplished some of what I needed, but it seemed like I kept running into hitches with everything I did. By noon, I had worked eight hours, and I could feel it. About the same time, my co-worker and I both agreed to go snowboarding that afternoon. I began to count the hours, sometimes with excitement, sometime with trepidation. My limbs were heavy and my eyelids were drooping, and I feared how my body would react to being forced into activity on the slopes. But, I had yet to spend time on my board, and it was one of the most perfect days for it! The snow that had been falling for a week eased to a stop around lunchtime, leaving fresh, soft slopes for us to ride without the stinging snow flying into our cheeks.

Just before 3:00 pm, I set out back down the hillside to prepare for the adventure. I grabbed some money, cringing as I thought of my need to save up. I hesitated at that point, then took a breath, and decided it would be worth it. Just before 4:00, we piled into the car with another friend, and headed west, to the slopes. There we met someone else, grabbed our stuff, and trekked toward the ticket booth. Just before I reached it, I was stopped by a voice. “Would you like this ticket?” she asked me in Norwegian.

I stared at her for a second. “Sure. How much?”

“Just take it,” she told me. “I'm going home, now.”

I thanked her in shock. Wow, God, thank you for taking care of that for me! Now I didn't have to spend any money! We all hit the slopes. I was on a different board, so it took a couple runs to get used to the feel of it. Soon, I began to love it! I sliced through the snow, attempting jump after jump (succeeding about half the time on those), enjoying the wind, the fresh air, and the good company.

At one point, I stopped where the trail split to see which way the group wanted to go. They flew passed me, to the left, and since I had stopped on a flatter area, it took a minute to get going again. Just before I reached the slope, the corner of my eye was tickled by a hint of something on the ground. I turned to see what had caught my attention. Was it...? 100 kr! Wow! God, wait a second! You give me a free ticket, and then some money to boot? Well, I've got to do something good with this. Would a Norwegian check lost and found for something like this? That's not their style. Maybe I'll share it with the others.

As we ended our day, and gathered in our cars, I announced that I would buy everybody ice cream! We met at the store, and unanimously voted for a box of frozen Snickers bars. After buying them, we ventured out to a picnic table by the river nearby. We sat on the back of the benches, digging our feet into the foot-and-a-half of snow that rested on the seats, and set the box in the center of the snow piled up on the table. It was cold, but our hearts were warm, and our taste buds were delighted!

I was exhausted when I fell into bed at 1:00 on Wednesday morning, but I was thankful to God for the many gifts He'd given me that reminded me not to stress, but to simply trust Him, and do my best!