Grace Unexpected

A neat thing happened the other day that I failed to post. It was in the midst of all the birthday-Easter business, and I almost let it slip unnoticed. I shop at ALDI usually weekly, and had seen a model of a corner dining table/bench unit they were selling. The model was doll-sized and was made from solid wood. I thought, "how cute! I wonder who gets things like that when they're done selling the actual people-sized product?" I was thinking how much my girls would love it for their American Girl dolls--the perfect size. So about a week after I'd first seen it, my mom and I were shopping at ALDI for some Easter groceries and we saw the manager move the model set to one of the front register lines. They were done advertising the "real" set. My mom (always a bargain-hunter) called out, "are you selling that?" He said "Why, do have a little girl?" My mom said "well, I have grand-daughters who would love that for their dolls" He said "How much do you think it's worth?" Now, clearly, were you to buy something like this from American Girl, you'd be looking at about $120 or more. My mom hesitated to say anything, thinking he'd laugh at any offer she made. Then to our great surprise, the manager said "How 'bout you give me a dollar for it?" A DOLLAR? This was a miracle. Our checker said "You wouldn't believe how many people wanted to buy that this week!" I smiled, because I had been one of those people, but never dreamed they'd sell it to me for a measly dollar. What moved this manager to sell it to us for a buck? My only explanation is that it was God's grace extended to us. And what a teachable moment for our girls when we presented it to them. Keaton had seen it too at the store and had asked about it, and I had told her it wasn't for sale. Guess I was wrong! God had it staked out for us from the beginning! I love it when Grace catches us unexpectedly.