I got "bumped" today

So yesterday I had a lunch scheduled with my fourth grade team at Olive Garden. I realized I needed a new day planner, so I ran into Staples before heading off the the restaurant. When I walked out and into the parking lot, I had to walk around the back end of an SUV that was parked facing out right next to my mini-van.

Just as I quickly rounded the back tire and around the side, I hear this spitting sound. You know the sound. The nasty sound that comes right before a big nasty ball of spit. I couldn't slow down enough because just as my foot went down around the side of the SUV, the driver spat. Now imagine this all happening at once. At first I thought surely I had a spit ball on my foot. But no, when I looked down it was the biggest ball of gum I have ever seen, and it was stuck right on the top of my black sandal.

The entire thing was too much. I laughed so hard tears came to my eyes. The driver, who was a nice older woman in her fifties, was absolutely mortified. I think she expected me to yell or get upset with her. But when I was laughing she had no choice but to laugh too. She got a tissue out of her car and cleaned off the gum ball from my shoe, all the while the two of us laughing about how bizarre the entire situation was.

A friend of ours once gave a sermon where he talked about the "garbage in, garbage out" idea. He poured a glass of OJ and used the example that if one of us bumped the glass we would expect OJ, not iced tea, to come out. Same thing with our lives. The more we fill ourselves with God's word, the more that comes out when we are "bumped" in life.

Emily is memorizing a verse from her sunday school class. "Be kind and loving to each other. Ephesians 4:32" That is what came to my mind as I was laughing so hard. What a gift that was. I was so thankful that when I got "bumped" laughter was the first thing that came out of me. It was a reminder to me of that sermon more than three years ago, and of the way we truly reflect... if we allow ourselves to.