It might seem strange to pick the word “ordinary” for our Mindful Advent focus word of the day at such a special time of the year. But let’s meditate on it for a few moments today — in fact, I invite you to take a few moments here and there in this “ordinary” day, and really see how in the midst of the ordinary, there are indeed extraordinary blessings.
The people who make up the Christmas stories in scripture are quite ordinary people (except, perhaps, the magi), in spite of our efforts to elevate them with fancy gold embossed Christmas cards. They could be our neighbors — the young couple just starting out, poor but with great hopes before them, the older couple facing a later in life surprise, but full of wisdom and caring for those around them, shepherds hanging out in the field, just doing their job. Even though they are ordinary, or maybe because they are ordinary, they experience God’s message and God’s blessing for them, in their ordinary lives, this wondrous, convention-busting God. They could be our neighbors, they could be us, they are us.
Leslie
“Let us remind ourselves that it is ordinary people — men and women, boys and girls — that make the world a special place.” -Nelson Mandela
“The courage of very ordinary people is all that stands between us and the dark.” -Pam Brown
“There are no great people in this world, only great challenges which ordinary people rise to meet.” -William Frederich Halsey
Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ 