A Cart with Good Wheels

I went to the store last week and I pulled a shopping cart from the line of carts.  I started my adventure into the store, pushing my cart, waiting to see and hear what this particular cart would do.  I exaggerate not; most of the carts I get usually have a noisy limp.  As a rule, one of the four wheels won’t turn or won’t swivel or won’t roll smoothly for some reason, and the dysfunctional wheel usually comes with a loud and obnoxious noise that will draw the attention of other shoppers to you as you make your way down the aisles.  Of course, their shopping carts usually have an issue as well, but these issues do seem to come in varying degrees of annoyance, so I suppose shoppers are making comparisons amongst themselves, some of them thinking, “Well I guess it could have been worse.” 

But on that particular occasion last week I happened to be the lucky one millionth shopper (or something like that) that got a cart with four good wheels.  I pushed and listened, pushed more and listened, but nothing, no inappropriate noise was coming from the cart’s wheels.  With that discovery, I froze for a moment.  I wasn’t exactly sure what to do.  On one hand I expected a supervisor to come and take the cart back, explaining it was reserved for the employee of the month.  On the other hand I expected lights to start flashing, balloons and confetti to start falling, and employees to start singing to me like servers at a restaurant serenading a patron having a birthday.  There was none of that.  Just your basic shopping trip followed from there, but I wanted to tell you about the good thing that happened so you’d know it is possible.

I’m going back to the store this afternoon.  No great expectations, but I’m more hopeful as a result of my last experience.  What I’m thinking is that grace happens.  It doesn’t exactly say it that way in the Bible, but it’s true, grace happens, sometimes pertaining to stuff more important than wheels on carts.  It usually happens without fanfare, but it happens.  And knowing that, may you be more hopeful as you go about your day.