Some of you know that our family celebrates Thanksgiving the second weekend in November because that works best for the many hunters in our family. I had been careful not to make many plans for the preceding week so I’d have plenty of time to prepare.

Then a few weeks ago, I received a notice in the mail that I should report for jury duty November 8-10. I had served on a jury before, and when Donn said he thought I could get out of it because I was over seventy, I assured him I didn’t want to get out of it …until I looked at a calendar.

“Oh no,” I moaned to Donn, “that’s the week prior to the weekend our family celebrates Thanksgiving!”

I promptly called the Courthouse to find out if those over seventy could be excused. To my dismay, I was told that the age is seventy-five.

“Okay, Lord,” I whispered, “I’ll have to trust you for grace to serve on the jury and to get everything ready for Thanksgiving.”

I tried not to worry but getting over Covid and the time change hadn’t done good things for my energy level. How would I ever get everything done?

On Monday evening, I searched for the sheet I needed to take to the Courthouse the next day to no avail. So I looked online to find out if that sheet was important. It was, so I searched again and this time I found it. I tucked it into my purse so I wouldn’t forget it.

The next morning when I pulled out my instructions to find out where I should park, I read that I was supposed to call the Courthouse after 5:30 p.m. the evening before. Well, too late for that. When I found myself fretting about whether I’d be in trouble for not calling, I started to laugh. What could they do to me? Tell me I couldn’t serve? “Oh well,” as Donn and I are fond of saying, “don’t throw me in the briar patch!” (In other words, I didn’t want to serve this week anyway!”

After I drove to Mercer, parked and headed for the Courthouse, a woman carrying a paper similar to mine walked toward me, away from the Courthouse. She smiled and asked, “Are you reporting for jury duty?”

When I told her I was, she said, “You don’t have to report. I think because it’s election day. There’s a sign in there.”

With a lighter heart, I went in to find the sign. Apparently, if I had called the night before, I would have been told that I didn’t need to report today! The sign also said I should call again that night to be given instructions for the next day.

I thanked the Lord for this reprieve and went home to make rolls that I would freeze for our Thanksgiving dinner. That evening I made the phone call and a recording told me to report at 9:30 the next morning. I did, along with a herd of other people.

After signing in, I had a pleasant conversation with the lady next to me who reminded me that even if our trial ran longer than the days we were told, we wouldn’t have to come in on Friday because Friday was Veteran’s Day. That had been one of my biggest concerns—that our trial would run long and I’d have to serve on Friday when I needed to bake pies!

Eventually we were given a fifteen-minute break to give the judge the time he apparently needed. By 10:45 most of us had returned from our break and were becoming restless. Then “Bo” (the young man who had been instructing us) appeared to tell us to rise, and the judge entered the courtroom. He sat down and smiled at us silently for a moment before saying, “I got nothin’ for ya!”

He went on to explain that the man, who had demanded a trial for a misdemeanor, had decided to go to something similar to anger management when he “saw the whites of the jury’s eyes!” He told us over and over, “This was not a waste of your time. It took him knowing you were here to change his mind.”

We were all a little stunned when the judge finished and Bo told us we were free to go. A woman near me voiced my question, “Do we have to call again tonight to find out if we need to come in tomorrow?”

“Nope,” Bo responded with a smile, “I don’t ever want to see your faces again!”

I smiled back and said, “The feeling is mutual!”

He cringed, “Oh that hurts a little!”

I sped to my car, thanking God again and again that my jury duty couldn’t have been much lighter. I chuckled when I realized how much time I’d wasted trying to figure out how I’d get everything done for Thanksgiving, especially if our case ran long. Matthew 6:34 came to mind, “Don’t worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”  I especially love the rendering of this verse in The Message, even though I don’t know if I will ever be able to follow the instructions!

Someone told me that with God, you never fail a test. You just keep taking the same test over and over until you pass! I suspect I will be taking this test again and again until I die or until Jesus comes!