Amazing Grace at the Sand Bar Grill
This Story Brought to the Heritage UMC Blog by Guest Contributors Jason, Lauren, and Maria LeBlanc!
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This Story Brought to the Heritage UMC Blog by Guest Contributors Jason, Lauren, and Maria LeBlanc! 〰️
Picture it: Ash Wednesday, 2022. My family and I had attended the 7PM Ash Wednesday service after working and going to school during the day. We were hungry, tired, and not in the mood to have to cook, so we decided to check out a small restaurant that we’ve driven by a thousand times. The Sandbar Grill, which is literally a single wide trailer and some decking in the Curlew Road shopping plaza by the Causeway, is always packed. For several years, we’ve passed by this restaurant, always concluding that one day we would go there to eat, only to ultimately forget about it when looking for a place to eat. Finally, this night would be the night.
As it turns out, the Sandbar Grill is more of a bar than a grill at the time of night we went, although we imagine there’s a bit more balance to that during the daytime hours. Immediately, we were taken aback that the bulk majority of the people there were very conscious of our daughter being present and refrained from using inappropriate language. They even offered up places that we could sit at where she might be more comfortable; our daughter wasn’t too terribly fond of the loud live music that evening. Everyone seemed to almost be protective of her even though we had never eaten there before and didn’t know any of them; still we couldn't help but feel like we had just become family members by merely showing up to eat there.
Since we went straight from church, we still had our ashes on our faces for Ash Wednesday. This was met with excitement amongst our impromptu family members, many of whom exclaimed that they had either forgotten or didn't realize it was Ash Wednesday. As the evening progressed, one of the regulars was so moved that she got up on stage (it seemed to be an open mic night of sorts) to sing Amazing Grace adapted to the rhythm of the song House of the Rising Sun. She then started talking about Jesus and the sacrifice He made for us.
We have never experienced anything like it, but we thought it was really cool! We immediately thought of Pastor Matt’s sermon about the sacred intruding into the secular. We were exhausted and hungry and weary from the day, but the Lord led us to exactly what was needed that evening, and we left uplifted, inspired, and couldn’t stop smiling and talking about the experience. We felt that sharing the story would be a good idea, if for no other reason that it may help others to look for the Lord’s blessings in everything, even in the places and moments one may not necessarily be looking for them.
