Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Matt 6:26 (NLT)
Normal, Everyday, Ordinary Person – Normal Series – Part 3
The day I discovered I just a normal, everyday, ordinary person, was a sobering one. I have a six-year-old son and a four-year-old daughter, and I think the day they realise that they’re not part of the “Avengers” crew or the “Young Justice League,” will be significant for them too. There seems to be something built into all of us that desires to not only be unique but to be loved and singled out because of it. We think that being normal and ordinary is just that. Boring. Average. Unexciting.
But it's in the place of being very normal that the world opens up and becomes full of colour and light and wonder. It’s not until you discover how seemingly insignificant you are regarding the structure of the world and all the people who have gone before you and all the people who will come after you, that you can begin to understand your true significance.
If you seek to save your life, you’ll lose. But if you give it away freely, if you hold it lightly, treat it like it's a breath or vapour, a beautiful inhale and exhale of the Divine, you will find real and true and vibrant life.
We worry so much about putting food on the table and roofs over our heads, and beautiful threads on our backs, and designer furniture under our bottoms, that we mistakenly think that the beauty of life exists in these things. And while we consume and buy and climb ladders and adorn our bodies with overpriced clothes and revel in our “success,” real life whizzes right on by us.
My favourite moments with my kids aren’t when they get an award at school or perform well in their ballet concert, or when they wear a perfect outfit to a friend's party or kick a scoring goal. It's in the mess and muck of life; the moments where they’re covered in dirt and belly laughing for the whole world to hear; eating raw cake batter out of the mixing bowl with a smile from ear to ear; having burping competitions after dinner; comforting them when they’re sad, encouraging them when they’re afraid; listening to their jokes that make no sense… It’s the normal stuff that is often the most wonderful.
If you need grand achievements, high heights of success, full bank accounts and huge homes to make you feel like your life is beautiful and significant and valuable, then you don’t really know what beautiful, significant and valuable looks like.
Alicia Britt Chole says, “In the absence of others volunteering to explain why we are so valuable, we have to answer that question for ourselves.”
The day I realised I was just as normal and average and ordinary as EVERYONE ELSE was ultimately a blessing. I was free. Free to be as plain and normal as I was, but deeply loved, full of value, and incredibly significant.
In my own right.
On God's terms.
No one else's.
“That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are?” Jesus, Matt 6:25-26. NLT.
Go to Part 4 – Common Grace »
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