It was Christmas day, 2009 and my brother-in-law, Jim was not at home with his three young kids and wife, he was out plowing the streets of the town in which he works. The beautiful snowfall on Christmas Eve meant my sister-in-law would have to hold the eagerness of their kids at bay until her husband could get back home.
As he rounded a corner a woman ran out YELLING, threw her gloves at him (as well as some profanity) for all the snow he just left at the end of her driveway. The thing you need to know about Jim is this - he is very conscientious. He is actually aware of how curves tend to dump more snow in some driveways and does whatever he can to help spread it around and minimize what he can. Another thing to know about Jim is this, his plowing route has the fewest complaints. And the last thing to remember here is this - its Christmas morning and his wife and kids are home waiting to begin celebrating Christmas...and he just got screamed at...for plowing the streets...on Christmas morning.
One year later: It was Christmas Eve, while Jim was out plowing, his boss had helped by plowing part of Jim’s route. When Jim came around a corner, he saw a lot of snow had just been plowed into the "screaming" (my description) woman's driveway. "Oh no, not on my route will that happen again." (He didn't feel like being yelled at again.) So he maneuvered his plow as best as he could and removed the snow from the end of her driveway. Angry woman averted. Time to go home and help his wife with Christmas Eve preparations.
Later that day while Jim was at the grocery store, he noticed the car next to him had left the back door open and there were Christmas gifts in the backseat. He was worried about the gifts being stolen, was wondering if he should just shut the door, questioned if it had been left open for a reason, when the owner of the car arrived ~ someone Jim recognized immediately ~ the woman who had yelled at him the year before! She obviously didn't recognize him and went on about how kind he was to be concerned and to make sure nothing was taken.
I looked at him as he told this story, and said incredulously, "You told her that was funny since you were the same person that she screamed at the year before, right?!"
"No. I just told her Merry Christmas and got in my car."
Unbelievable. I just looked at him. I've always liked my brother-in-law, but now I admired him too. This is a story of grace. He didn't need her to be ashamed of her actions. He didn't want to bring her disgrace. He extended grace...and she didn't even know it.
The following week Jim sat in a meeting at work and it was brought to the attention of the staff that a woman had written a note thanking the plow driver who took care of the snow at the end of her driveway earlier that week. She described this driver as her "Christmas Angel".
I love this story. Its inspiring to me. It makes me remember that God grants me grace all the time...grace that I sometimes don't even know about. Grace that I need to spread around, grace that I don't need to highlight (which wouldn't really be grace anyway).
Thanks Jim for being the kind of guy that you are, I'm glad you married Kevin's sister all those years ago so we could claim you as family as well.
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