No Gravy For Christmas - Tracy Krauss

The kitchen was filled with the wonderful smells of Christmas dinner. My daughters were bustling about getting the food on the table while my husband finished carving the turkey. I was busy stirring the gravy. It had thickened beautifully and was a nice golden colour. All it needed was a bit of seasoning. As the good natured banter flew about the room, I reached for the salt shaker, undid the cap and began to shake... and dumped the entire contents into the gravy!

Why would anyone undo the cap on the salt shaker? This was the million dollar question for which I had no answer. It was just one of those absent minded things. One little mistake that ruined the whole batch. We ate our Christmas dinner minus the gravy this year.

Although the incident didn't ruin Christmas entirely, I was quite upset that I had done such a silly, absent minded thing. The family were all very forgiving, even though I felt terrible. In the end, we enjoyed the meal and the rest of the festivities continued, gravy or no gravy.

It reminded me of life in general. Sometimes we mess up and no amount of apologizing will change the consequences of our actions. Yet, God in his love and forgiveness, helps us carry on and things usually turn out in the end. I hope that you have had a good year - mishaps and all - and can look back with reassurance that God is in control.