No Ordinary Love

Every once in a while I get a stirring inside of me that wants to do something or be something great. I wish for the fame of an ultra talented writer who sells many books and changes lives or that
I could be a professional runner who lives for running and wins. I wish that I had incredible creativity and sold fantastic crafty type things on Etsy or that I was a super good cook and had dinner parties every weekend. Alas, I am none of these things. I'm just a normal, ordinary, every day, type of person. No one looks twice when I walk by. I live in a normal, ordinary, every day house on a normal, ordinary, every day street.

The other day my plain little house was bustling with the noises of norm (kids quarreling, TV blaring, baby whining) when I stepped outside, as I do every day, to throw out some trash. The door shut behind me and I was struck by the quietness of the morning. I could hear some far away barks of a restless dog, the wind rustling tree leaves, but then caught sight of a silently soaring bird. My eyes followed its flight to the end of our street before I walked back into the clatter of my life.

Since then I've noticed these silent birds in flight almost every where I go. I am intrigued by how often they soar by without fanfare or demand for attention. These birds are going about the ordinary business of their days. Maybe one is gathering twigs for a nest, or another scouting out her prey. Whatever the task, each bird is doing what it was created to do and for all I know, perfectly content with life. A normal, ordinary, every day kind of life for a bird.

I know that, at least for now, God is not asking me to be anything extraordinary. He needs me to be ordinary. I may not be signing books or on the cover of Runners' World, but my life has meaning to those close to me because of ordinary love. I love because I was first loved by God. It is a love that is linked forever to the sacrifice of the cross. This same Love can flow through me and continue on forever if I am willing to accept this life God has given me. God's love multiplies and so ordinary love, does in fact, have the amazing capability to change the world. Now whenever I see a bird soaring through the air, I silently accept again God's love and this life He has given me because God's love is no ordinary love.