The Miraculous Normal
As both of my kids started school on Wednesday at Holy Spirit, I was surprised at how emotional it was to drop them off. Just to offer them a chance to have what felt like a normal day was a true blessing. Before this pandemic, celebrating what was normal seemed counterintuitive. That is to say, if you are anything like me, you took more for granted than imaginable. Having had the chance to sit with some of you in your driveway or yard, I have been reminded how much I am fed by being with you. Having a routine of dropping off and picking up kiddos brings rhythm to the day. I can actually, fairly accurately, remember what day it is. I am reminded that in unobserved normalcy, we are surrounded by the easily missed presence of our loving God.
One thing I have been pondering this week is how little we know about Jesus’ normal days. We hear about the remarkable circumstances in which he turns water into wine or feeds 5,000+ people with a few loaves and fish. We know about the times when people gather around him to hear him teach and show the nature of God’s love. We marvel at the miracles like walking on water or healing unhealable people. These are stories well known. We also know his difficulties and struggles as he was driven out of his hometown or cursed by the religious authorities. We particularly observe his final days every Holy Week as he sealed our fate as people delivered from sin and death.
With the major events on our radar, I wonder about the random Tuesday when his friends complained about left overs or the days when they walked all day in dusty, reflective silence from town to town. I once had a parishioner challenge me to show him any indication in scripture of Jesus laughing. It occurred to me then that the accounts we have are rarely focused on the normal days in Jesus’ life when he inevitably joked with his friends. My answer was to share my belief that we have a God of joy and it is inevitable that our Jesus laughed and shared in joy with his friends. He was a person after all.
Normal is not a static thing. The idea of a new normal is simply the acknowledgement that things inevitably change. It is in statements like this that I am reminded that we are a people who find meaning in tension. The already but not yet nature of God’s Kingdom comes to mind. The normalcy of change and the changing normal remind us repeatedly that we live in a tumultuous world and the only true steady point of reference is our steadfast God who is all in all and has already but not yet made all things new and whole. I look forward to sharing with you whatever normal will be. God will be with us in that normal too.
We love you and God loves you.