Some days, perhaps many days, are so routine and ordinary that we take them for granted. “What did you do today?” “Nothing special.” On one hand, it’s true; but on the other, every day is a gift from God. Sometimes, if we pause and look back, the ordinariness of our days can reveal special moments we too often – at the time that they’re happening – take for granted.
So, here’s a question for you this morning: If you could go back in time for just 30 minutes—not to meet someone in particular or to change your history, but to do nothing more than experience an ordinary part of your childhood again—where would you go?
Would you go back to sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast before school? Maybe you’d choose a summer day, when you and some friends were outside, and you didn’t have to be home until the streetlights came on. Maybe you’d go back to lying on the living room floor watching cartoons or reading a book. Maybe it would be riding your bicycle somewhere you weren’t supposed to go. Or sitting in the back seat of the family car, watching the world go by through the window.
Thirty minutes. That’s all.
The funny thing is, we probably wouldn’t choose the “big” occasions. We’d choose something completely ordinary. A part of our daily lives that we assumed would always be there … until it wasn’t.
Because somewhere along the way, ordinary became precious.
When we were children, we didn’t know we were making memories. We were just living. We didn’t stop to think, “I’d better remember this because someday I’ll wish I could come back.”
We just ate the sandwich. Rode the bike with friends. Watched the cartoon. Discovered new worlds in the pages of a book. Played outside. Fell asleep in the back seat.
And then the years passed. We had to make our own sandwiches (and make them for others). Riding our bikes through the neighborhood with wild abandon was no longer “respectable.” Cartoons are for kids. We don’t have time for books or to “play.” And we can’t fall asleep in the back seat because we’re driving the car!
There’s a wonderful little verse in Ecclesiastes that says, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” Our ordinaries may have changed, but we still have them.
It becomes so ingrained in us to think that the important moments of life are the big ones, and that the little moments don’t count. But God is reminding us that a life is mostly made up of ordinary moments that we learn to receive as gifts.
That’s worth remembering today. Because whatever you’re doing this morning probably doesn’t feel particularly remarkable.
You’re making coffee. Going to work or looking at your to-do list for the day. Driving somewhere. Doing laundry. Answering email.
Taking the dog out.
It’s so … ordinary. But what if this ordinary day is part of the pattern of good old days you’ll wish you could revisit someday?
Maybe that’s why Scripture tells us, “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Not tomorrow. This day. The one you’re actually living.
So, if you think about going back in time, to 30 minutes of a normal childhood day, don’t think about something spectacular. Find the extraordinary in the ordinary. If you’re looking for me, you’ll probably find me in the hayloft or down by the river, a book in one hand and one (or two) grandma cookies in the other. I really miss those cookies….
Prayer: Lord, thank you for the ordinary moments that make up our lives. Help me not to rush past them in search of something more exciting. Give me eyes to recognize today’s simple gifts and a heart grateful enough to receive them. Remind me that this day, just as it is, is a gift from you. Amen.
