You might call the house I grew up in antique since its main section was 100 years old. It was a nice house in a good section of town, but it didn’t have much in the way of modern-day amenities. We didn’t even have a furnace until I was about eight years old! We relied on space heaters to keep us warm in the winter.

The house also lacked an outdoor faucet. That made it more difficult for my father when he wanted to water our backyard garden. He would have to tote the hose inside, attach it to the bathtub faucet, open the bathroom window and toss the hose out! Only after he turned the faucet on could he go outside and get busy watering the garden.

Talk of the Table

I remember one particular day when I noticed that the hose was sticking out the bathroom window. I looked outside and, sure enough, my father was giving the garden a good watering.

Suddenly, for a reason I still can’t explain except as a moment of mischief, I turned the bathtub faucet off. I couldn’t see the expression on his face, but I could tell he was trying to figure out what happened to the water.

I quickly moved away from the window so I couldn’t be seen. But, as he shook the hose back and forth, I decided I’d better turn the water back on before he got even more upset.

Just as I did, he unexpectedly held the nozzle up to his face to get a better look.

He got more than a look! In a split second, the water splashed him in the face and he got soaked. He looked up toward the window but, thankfully, I had ducked down again.

I left the bathroom right away and headed for my bedroom on the second floor. I grabbed a book and sprawled out on the bed as if I’d been reading for quite some time. Fortunately, no one else was home.

“Joyce!” he bellowed from the kitchen. He apparently didn’t want to leave the kitchen and walk on the living room carpet so he could get dry clothes from upstairs. I didn’t know what to do, so I stayed on the bed, pretending to be asleep in case he decided to come upstairs.

Soon afterward, I heard him slam the kitchen door as he went outside again. I didn’t dare go all the way back to the bathroom to peek through that window, but I did go downstairs to look out a living room window that had a view of the backyard.

Sure enough, he was watering the garden again. I couldn’t help laughing as he held the hose out front of him and kept shaking it, as if telling that nozzle it had better behave!

My father’s backyard adventure was the talk of the supper table as my mother, my older brother and I listened to his tale. I didn’t say a word.

In a split second, the water splashed him in the face and he got soaked. JOYCE STARR MACIAS

Mercy and Grace

Years later, that scene still comes to mind every now and then, and I wondered why I had never told my parents the story that only I knew. But when I think about it now, many years later, I view it from a Christian perspective.

And it reminds me of an often-quoted description about God’s great mercy and grace: “Mercy is God not giving us the punishment for sin that we all deserve, while grace is God giving us the salvation and eternal life that we don’t deserve.”

The young girl—me—who had caused her father’s encounter with a hose full of water, received mercy that day by not being caught. My mischievous act that day was worthy of some kind of disciplinary action, but I didn’t get what I deserved for my mischief.

When I was older, I received grace from God that I surely didn’t deserve when Jesus came into my heart and forgave all my sins, including the backyard hose incident and my deliberate cover-up of what I’d done.

We don’t get the eternal punishment we deserve, and we do get eternal life in heaven, which we don’t deserve.

That’s mercy. That’s grace. Just add water.

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