Recognizing Mercy

As Divine Mercy Sunday opens this evening, I find that I am being challenged to recognize the forms that God's mercy takes. It doesn't always look like mercy, at least according to my very limited understanding. I'm still in New Orleans, spending the best part of each day in the ICU at Mom's side. Even though we don't know how things will turn out, it is a gift of Divine Mercy that I can be in the ICU at Mom's side. I'm having to remind myself of this; that one day I will look back on these days in the life of my family and mercy will be all I see.
It is a gift of Divine Mercy to have people all around the world supporting us in prayer. To have a member of the choir whom I really don't know very well at all send me a profound message of support. To have my high school classmates respond to my prayer request with letters and phone numbers "in case you need anything at all." To have six siblings to share all this with day after day. To be walking through the waiting room and have another patient's family ask me if I can call a priest to come anoint their brother, their son.
Heck, it's even a gift of Divine Mercy for me to be learning so much about critical care so I can refine my own health care directives.
None of this is mercy I particularly wanted to experience, of course, but that doesn't make it any less merciful.
A special gift of Divine Mercy was the reminder by a family friend that even before the possible loss of those dearest to us, it is the pinnacle of their life we are talking about. I received that as a reminder to focus more deliberately and consciously (and frequently) on Heaven.
Is there a "mercy" in your life that you needed time to recognize?