Ordinary or Extraordinary?

As I read Ann Voskamp's blog post describing her journey with unexpected heart failure, two words resonated with me....."ordinary glory". Ordinary glory.....finding the glory of our Papa God in the ordinary ~ the laughter of children, the rising or setting of the sun, the beating of our own hearts.  As I shared with Joel her written words he responded with....."There really is no ordinary glory". This does ring true.  The glory of the Lord comes into our ordinary and makes it all extraordinary.

When we walk through the valley and find ourselves looking back on that season, it is important to use our spiritual eyes to see how God released His love and wove His goodness, His glory into each step along the way. He makes the ordinary extraordinary.

And what is the ordinary?  Well, I mentioned a few above.....the laughter of children, the beating of our own hearts.........the rising or setting sun.  I guess it is those things we take for granted in life, like our next breath.......or the food set before us.  Yeah.

When we traveled West through all the wide open spaces in the winter of 2015, I noticed all the different sunsets...and began to photograph them as I realized each one held it's own beauty.  In our neighborhood it is hard to find the sunset or sunrise with all the trees and houses that block the view. Not so on our favorite farm where I can wake early and view the sunrise from the window that brings it right to me on the upstairs landing.  It never fails to bring gratitude to my heart.  So, too, the sunset over our favorite Iowa lake.

Our favorite Iowa lake at sunset

The sunset we saw in Kansas was different than those we experienced in Arizona.  I hope I never tire of pausing to experience God's ending to another day created for our enjoyment.  We were not able to see the eclipse here with our overcast skies, but even watching it on our TV, we were completely in awe of this unusual occurrence.  Our Creator's intricate detail and power displayed!  Those events do amaze us and should!   But I throw out there the idea that the ordinary can amaze us too.

Bill Johnson in his book, The Supernatural Power of the Transformed Mind, said we need to live in the "everyday miraculous". and it should just be the norm.  Miracles seen as normal.....now there's an idea worth contemplating.

Ann Voskamp has encouraged millions of people to write down every single thing they are thankful for in each day......it changed her life, and when she shared her story with the rest of the world it has changed others too.  Being grateful for it all....because we are here to experience it.  Because we are here to receive it from our Papa God and share it with others.  Because when we do give thanks for the ordinary it does become something more.

So, maybe there is no ordinary when we let God into our lives.  Maybe it is all extraordinary.......and maybe when the Lord's Prayer reads.....thy Kingdom come on EARTH as it is in Heaven.....that here on earth does include the everyday miraculous.  And the extraordinary includes not only a rare eclipse, but the every day sunrise and sunset.   Thank you Papa for making the ordinary extraordinary!