Her car keeps moving toward me…

She’ll stop at the sign, right?

Of course she’ll stop.

But she doesn’t.

Can’t she see me?

If I hadn’t stopped, there would have been an accident.

I park and head into the doctor’s office for a quick appointment.

I am the only one waiting at the check-in desk.

Three women are working at the desk.

On the right…

One listens as a coworker talks about his grandkids…

On the left…

Another keeps looking out the window…

“That lady on the lawn,” she says… “is too close to the pond.”

“I’ll get security!” she calls as she leaves her desk…

Finally, the women in the center…

The woman directly in front of me…

looks up from her screen…

“Sorry,” she says… “my computer isn’t working. I can’t help you.”

The time for my appointment arrives…

And passes…

Ten minutes later, one of the women asks…

“Are you here to check in?”

“Yes.”

“Well, you’re late. We’ll try to work you in. but you’ll have to wait.”

And so I wait…

Forty-five minutes.

For a five-minute appointment.

“I deserve better,” I think.

Finally, they call my name.

The appointment ends.

Lunch time.

“I’m sorry,” says the woman taking my order…

“We’re sold out.  You’ll have to order something else.”

What a day, I think. I deserve better!

But then I laugh out loud realizing how foolish I am.

Foolish to focus on what I think I deserve from others…

…in humility value others above yourselves… Philippians 2:3 

Foolish to focus on what I think I deserve from God.

How glad I am that God doesn’t give me what I really deserve…

But offers the mercy of God instead…

The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made. Psalm 145:9

How good it is that on this day…

He has offered a gentle reminder that He gives the  mercy of God to each of us…

So that we can share the mercy of God with everyone…

Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. Luke 6:36