The Maple Syrup Disaster

This weekend was almost had a disaster.

Almost.

I was reaching into the back of my pantry (which is ridiculously small and deep, like who needs a deep pantry where I can’t get to anything, but that’s another story) for my horchata mix, when I accidentally bumped a small glass container of maple syrup.  I tried to catch it as it fell.  I mean, things went full-on slow motion.  I vaguely remember shouting “nooooooooo” and hearing my own voice distorted several octaves lower than normal.

I knew what was about to happen.  This bottle of maple syrup was about to shatter on the floor, leaving me with a mess of broken glass and sticky syrup everywhere.  Either one of those problems is a full-fledged mess on its own, but together: epic.  This goes beyond mess into the disaster category.  I mean, the president would need to declare my kitchen a state of emergency.  The army reserve would be called out.  This was going to be bad.

And then it wasn’t.  The bottle didn’t shatter like I thought it would.  The little tiny handle on the side broke off, requiring a quick sweep up, but that was it.  Small consequences for something that could have been catastrophic.

I love those moments when things aren’t nearly as bad as they could have been.  I feel like we tend to focus on the times then things don’t go well, and we often forget about the crises that have been averted.  Through God’s grace, those of us with a relationship with Christ don’t have to worry about the eternal consequences of any of our wrong actions, thoughts, words, or attitudes.  There may be some consequences here on earth, but that is nothing compared to an eternity separated from God.  Let’s try to remember that everything would be a disaster if not for the grace of God.