The other day I was doing my laundry and hung it outside to dry. And as I commenced in the action I was suddenly hit by the realization of how ordinary that experience was to me. There is truly nothing very exciting about hanging one's laundry. And yet I was struck by how profoundly human I felt while doing that.
" How many people hang their laundry in the world today?" I thought to myself because I didn't know. But it must be a lot. " And how many people hung their laundry in generations past?" Lots and lots I imagined.
And as I hung laundry I wondered about all the other mundane acts I did every day that were also shared experiences with the collective human race. It made me wonder about all the private, normal every day moments of Christians in the Bible. Did Mary, Jesus mother, hang laundry too? Did Jesus maybe even help her? Did Joseph, Jacob's son, learn how to cook meals and clean when he was a servant in Egypt? Did David feed the horses and sheer the sheep?
I began to wonder of all the moments the Bible never tells us about. And I was deeply moved by the thought that God saw every single one of those moments. Every single one. From birth. Can you imagine? And even more profound to me was that He chose to keep those moments hidden from us. He respected their privacy and only shared the things that would help us grow. God cherished each life mentioned in His Word.
That thought got me thinking about what He cherishes about my ordinariness. I am, in many ways, quite simple. And I like who I am. But to think that the God of all creation watches my every moment of every day... that's so amazing to me. Why does He bother?
And its not just me He watches. God sees every moment of every life in this world. I cannot fathom that fact. But its true. And I think if we all could see those moments of each other, the moments of complete vulnerability and humanness, it would help us understand how terribly our sins hurt others.
God loves you and me and every person, He always has. And I sometimes wrestle with that thought because there are some truly horrible acts committed by people towards others (animals and nature included.) And I think... how can God care about them? Does He not see what they do? Does He not care? But I believe that He cares so much more profoundly than any of us can ever know.
And I wonder, after all this pondering, if ordinary days have a purpose beyond the now. Could it be that the long days, weeks, months, and even years when nothing profound happens in our lives... could it be that we exist just so that God can love us?
" What are mere mortals that you should think about them,
human beings that you should care for them?"
~ Psalm 8:4
1 comment:
I enjoyed reading this. My days are usually filled with ordinary events. I also hang my clothes out to dry every now and again. What I like about this blog post is especially the last few sentences where you said, "Could it be that the ordinary long days, weeks, months, and even years when nothing profound happens in our lives.. could it be that we exist so that God can love us?"
I have been wondering about my "ordinary days", wondering if I'm supposed to be out doing something profound with my life, but this post made me realize that even these days that seem like I'm just existing here, are days in my life that matter to God and serve a purpose even if I don't know what exactly.
I'm glad to even have the time given by God to even sit and think about ordinary things like ordinary days filled with ordinary tasks. Many people are so preoccupied with life they don't have a moment to even realize what you shared here, so we can thank God for these ordinary days we can sit and talk to Him and think about His love and goodness. Thanks for sharing such a wonderful encouraging post. :-)
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