Today I went to the dentist. I do not like the dentist. I like the people who are dentists, I just don’t like their occupation. I prefer to stay away from people who drill at my teeth. But, alas, I HAD to go. There was no way getting around it this time around.
On Tuesday, I was sitting at our co-op minding my own beeswax and eating some pretzel chips and I felt a “rock” in my mouth as I was chewing my yummy pretzel chips. Come to find out it was the front of my tooth. My filling was totally exposed. So I got a referral from a friend for a new dentist and off I went this morning to get my mouth numbed up and my teeth drilled on.
I didn’t have any coffee until 10:00 this morning. This in and of itself is kinda unbelievable.
So, while I was sitting there gettin’ my teeth drilled on, the dentist’s assistant, who also happens to be his daughter-in-law was relaying a story to him. It goes like this:
She showed up early to her class last night to take a lab test that she was unable to take today. When she was done she thought she’d buy herself a treat, so there was a little candy machine in the building. You know the ones where you put in a quarter and get five M&Ms? She goes up to the machine, puts in her quarter, turns the knob and her quarter comes back and she gets a large handful of M&Ms. She tries again. Turns the knob and more M&Ms come out, but her quarter is still in place. She tries again and the same thing happens. Her quarter never left the little slot. She tries again and she got more M&Ms. Now she was beginning to feel guilty about taking so many M&Ms and thinking that she may be stealing, so she takes her quarter back and then heads off to her next class. It was a magical candy machine.
If I didn’t have so much drilling and stuff going on in my mouth at the time, I would’ve asked where this magical candy machine was. My kids would’ve cleaned out the magical candy machine, and I probably would’ve let them. FREE CANDY!!!!
On the way home it got me thinking about God’s grace. It’s kinda like that magical candy machine. It keeps giving, but it’s not magical. It’s Jesus. It’s what He does. He’s gracious. He keeps giving and giving grace, even when we don’t deserve it. Even when we feel like we may be able to take care of things our self, He’s gracious and He’s patient. We always fail, but he’s never asking for quarters to buy His grace. It’s always freely flowing, because we’re His kids.
I like that kind of Magical Candy Machine.