The Miracle of the Ordinary

Absolutely nothing extraordinary happened to me today.

None of my customers prayed for me, tipped me fifty bucks, or played Harry Potter games across the restaraunt with me. My coffee was normal and delicious, and it eventually got cold. The winter proved its continued existence with grey clouds and drizzling, cold rain. My muscles got sore when I worked out this morning. I finished watching "Julie and Julia" while eating my leftover lunch, and the movie ended the way it always does.

But, you know ... these things that are all ordinary, normal, commonplace and predicatable. Forgettable and ignorable, even. Each one of them is a blessing. I have a job where I earn money to pay student loans and fill up my car, and where my boss is a constant encouragement. My home is warm and smells like chocolate cake. I sipped that cooling coffee while sitting and chatting with my dear friend Laura. My muscles are healthy enough to work out and become sore. Our refrigerator holds plenty of food, some of which will never get eaten.

Paul urged the Thessalonians to "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." (1 Thess. 5:17-18)

In all circumstances. Give thanks in all circumstances. I have never done this. But this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for me, for Millie.

I rejoice in knowing that one day, when the new Jerusalem is my new home, and when God Himself with dwell with us and the name of the city will be "THE LORD IS THERE," (Ezekiel 48:35) then I, too, will be made new. I will be fully capable of worshipping like I was created to, of glorifying God instead of myself.

And, as Sally Lloyd Jones put it in The Jesus Storybook Bible, "and all the sad things will come untrue."

Amen! Come quickly, Lord Jesus!