Grab your hot chocolate because I have A Real Christmas Story.
I was able to squeeze in an appointment with a new and very busy doctor this week. When the nurse called my name, she handed me a plastic cup at the same time the receptionist returned my drivers license/insurance card, at the same time I handed her my clipboard of paperwork. Juggling the hurried exchange, I threw my license and insurance card loosely in my backpack, instead of my wallet.
Much later, around 7pm, I'm at home and going through my bag. Lo and behold, my drivers license is nowhere to be found. My insurance card was there all hunky dory, but not my license. Frantic and freaking out for a variety of reasons but most imminently, stringent airline rules (coupled with holiday stress, end of year work deadlines etc). I dump and riffle through everything in sight, somehow believing my license jumped from my bag to the pants I wore three days ago. Fifteen minutes later, I drive back to the doctor's office and spend the next thirty minutes in the dark, scouring the parking lot with my iPhone flashlight. Nada. While doing so, I sought counsel from friends and I had resolved that all was not lost, I'd simply be spending the entire next day at the DMV - and because I had a lot of extra time for this, I could even bring a book .
It's now about 8:15 pm. I pull into my garage and see an envelope slipped through the front door. I brace myself presuming it's another notice from my landlord. I hesitate and hold the envelope, feeling its contents, as if it's a college admissions or bar results packet. It seems weighted. Still could have been from the landlord.
I rip it open and out falls my drivers license. MY DRIVERS LICENSE! I burst into tears. For real. Inside the envelope was a handwritten note. They didn't leave their names, but they did drive in LA weekday evening traffic, which is at its craziest this time of year, to my chaotic, narrow, never-a-parking space street AND walked it up to my door. They found my license two miles from the doctor's office! I'm humbled, grateful and thankful, and perhaps have become a true believer. Honesty and goodness always wins. It just does. I could go on and on.... they could have dropped it in the mail or simply discarded it, yet they put it in an envelope with a handwritten note and personally delivered it. Even more peculiar is while I was desperately searching, I missed the drop-off from my Good Samaritans. I would have loved to meet them.
That's my Christmas story. It doesn't have to be a Christmas story per se, yet it's a story, a true story, about faith and goodness. Love wins. It just does. I don't need faith to know that, I only need to remember it. Big love to you all.
