The Blessing of the Mundane

If you have children, you have heard phrases like this, "Mommy, look at the ____! (This of course, could be any number of words...to the little bug you've already seen a dozen times, to the flower just blooming, to the fire truck you pass on the road, or the airplane that zooms overhead when you're outside.) Sometimes as a parent, I can get caught up in all the "important" things that I am doing that it is easy to respond with a nod and never really stop and see the wonder in my children's eyes at things that seem so ordinary and "mundane" at times to me. I wonder how much of the world and its cares has kept me from the wonder of those ordinary things, that really are quite extraordinary at a second glance. They were created by a God with extraordinary creativity. Is it any wonder that He calls us to come to Him as little children? How would it delight the heart of God to see His "grown-up children" find wonder in the everyday things of life? It is easy to get discouraged by doing the same old thing day after day after day. But, how much of that is our own loss of His mission for our lives? Every diaper I change, every dish I wash, every piece of clothing I put away...all of that is an act of love when done with a heart of service unto the Lord. Wouldn't it be nice to get some of that childlike wonder back? To see God's creation for all its beauty and to have that cause us to worship the Creator even more?

G. K. Chesterton once said, "Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we." May we have the courage and the youthfulness to go and exult in the monotonous today!