“Go set this on the kitchen table.”
Ruby grabbed plate and “thankful” tag her mom and put together and set it carefully on the kitchen table. She paused just a second to feel the smoothness of the wood. A faint smile crept across her face as she remembered that table’s history.
When they’d first gotten the table, they all got splinters from it. “Ouch!” was the most common word spoken at the dinner table that night.
That’s when Ruby’s dad had hauled the table to the garage and begun sanding on it. Ruby had just been a little girl, but her father had let her watch as he rubbed rough paper against the wood’s grains. “You’re hurting the table!” Ruby had protested, but her father had just smiled. He knew what she didn’t–that this sandpaper was exactly what that table really needed.
He’d been right. The table after sanding and finishing no longer produced splinters. It served its purpose and had been blessing them all since.
Ruby snapped back to the present, thinking about the things in her life that felt a little uncomfortable, like sandpaper. Maybe she should really be thankful for the situations and people that rubbed her wrong. Perhaps they were meant to somehow transform her like the sandpaper had this table.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28
I’m a sinner saved by grace through Jesus Christ. I’m also a writer—I’ve been writing ever since I could hold a pen. I… 
