“Ordinary”, 5 Minute Friday

So I am going to try and join a group of writers over at this blog every Friday
They give you one word to write on and you have 5 minutes to write, no editing, etc.
I got the idea from my dear friend Michaela who writes like an artist over HERE
I think this will be a good challenge for me
I always hated exercises like this in school
Because it stressed me out
But I think in this season of life I am in, having just 5 minutes, is a way to keep me disciplined in testifying of Him on this here blip of existence on the internet
And its a way to not try to perfect my thoughts
But just say them as is;)

So today’s word is “ORDINARY”
Here I go:

(Oh, and I realized after I began that actually I am living and breathing in Saturday morning, not Friday, as I am back at home in India. But let’s have grace today and use my EST time in Jacksonville, FL, for today?
Thanks for grace and understanding;) )

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ORDINARY, 5 minutes of writing

Sometimes I wonder,
I wonder at moments like right now, actually.
When it is 4 am and my Elliot has been up all morning and cannot shake the jet lag
When his cry wakes Adam up from a much prayed for deep sleep;)
And both of these little ones are crawling around our house
As if it is broad daylight and the outside is not blanketed by a thick black foggy night quilt

I wonder it at moments like last Monday when we are sitting in the airport
We are the family that gets extra looks
We get questions and looks of concern
We are put into the category of “special needs family”
(A group I always pitied and mourned for, until I was grafted in…now I realize the glory within and I never want out…)

I wonder it when Adam’s ostomy bag pops open in the middle of the night
And we have to literally ask the Spirit for Himself
because I know nothing like
“love, joy, peace, and patience”
Is going o be the fruit of my flesh in that sleepy state

I wonder it when Adam is admitted with a fever and the tears stream forth
In front of doctors who I think need to see a woman and mother of strength and not brokenness

I wonder it when we have to ask for hundreds of thousands of dollars
To pay for my boy’s surgeries
When there are countless thousands that have medical bills steeped high
And I feel their pain

I wonder it when I hear comments from men wondering why we do what we do

I wonder “Why is my life not more ordinary?”
Why was my Adam born stained with things mortal
Why did Hands, pierced and divine, not heal him in his birth momma’s womb?
Why does Adam have to grow up with a body, scarred by surgeries, getting stares and questions?
Why can’t he be ordinary?

And that stranger in the airport,
That stranger, who s is now a friend.
His comment comes to mind
He had approached us in the airport after seeing Adam’s painting at a Art Festival
He shed tears as he spoke of his daughter who had passed away 2 years prior
And he shared of his 13 years loving and caring for her and her “special needs”
I saw his face aglow as he shared of this little one who he clearly missed so much
I did not hear comments of relief or resentment that she was not born “ordinary”
I heard a celebration of the life she lived and the ache within his heart as he missed her presence

And I remember how he said that after her death and when he and his wife had so much “free time”
(Meaning free from all the minutes in a day that may have been spent caring for her)
He realized that all those concerns that people had for them,
That they were “missing out” on ordinary pleasures
They were all empty concerns
Because he realized how much he came to know the heart of the Father
Through the “inordinary” moments
And then He spoke those words of Life, from the Word, Living
He said that he realized, after this daughter had passed away that it is really true,
“Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it.”

I remember those words from the book of Luke
As I sit here in the early morning hours with these two boys
I look up and see Adam laughing
I realize all the extravagant blessings and love that have been showered on us thru this new season of parenthood

And I remember that actually, when we are His children
His Spirit is within us
So nothing is ordinary anymore
We are sons and daughters of royalty and divinity
And therefore we are not ordinary
Because no matter what our lives look like
The mundane and ordinary become glory when His spirit dwells