Undeserved Offering

There they were, standing at my door, with fresh eggs as an offering. An offering that I should be making to them, yet there they were. Her eyes still looked like they had been crying, and it was his second visit in the last hour.
My two oldest had planned a bike ride to celebrate the freedom of Christmas break. They hurried with their breakfast and chores, grabbed their helmets and took off. Unknown to me, our dog, with her highly developed talent for jumping our back fence, went with them. They had only been gone a short time when I heard the oldest crying as she came running through the door.

"Nala, she got a chicken...we tried to stop her...they were yelling and screaming...Mom, hurry!"

I went out in the yard to find our dog trotting up with our neighbor's prize rooster in her mouth. I yelled at the dog and she was surprised enough to drop her trophy. I tied her up and went to the rooster. This wasn't the first time for our dog, and last time the chicken had died. Just as I finished inspecting the rooster, my neighbor drove up in his truck. He lifted my daughter's bike from the back as I approached with the rooster in my arms. He had left his wife crying...for the rooster had a name, and had come to collect his bird.

I apologized again...it sounded so weak. He asked if my kids were ok as he looked over his bird, then he was gone.

How could I make it up to them...make wrongs right. I had already offered to pay, but was refused. Bread....goodies wrapped in pretty paper....nothing seemed to express how guilty I felt.

Then came the knock on my door and there they stood, on my front porch with fresh laid eggs...mending what I could not, and offering the very things I had threatened.

These eggs, their kindness, have been in my thoughts all week. I remember with shame my own unforgiving anger. I say remember, but truthfully it still lingers in my heart as I write. I pray, as I battle within...I pray for the strength and peace to offer again, what has been threatened.