Walking around the lake this morning I began to read a new book In the Midst of Chaos: Caring for Children as Spiritual Practice by Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore (Jossey-Bass, 2007).  Bonnie’s comments as a mother and professor at Vanderbilt animate reality as she invests her experience encouraging “integration of faith into daily life” (p. 7). 

“Sanctifying the ordinary” is the title for chapter two.  I cheered her comments that too often we ballyhoo the great Christian thinkers who withdrew alone to monasteries to do their thinking and writing.  Her question “what about the rest of us who invest in the daily life of family?” motivates her belief that her vocation as parent informs everything else.

The ordinary is infused with the extraordinary.  Ordinary is extraordinary.  We live in God’s world.   Thinking that “spiritual life” is somehow divested from the rest of life, we miss God’s view of His world.  Joseph understood this.  After drawing out his brothers’ guilt for their past offense (Gen 44:18-34) he makes the generous statement,

“Now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me

here; for God sent me before you to preserve life…God sent me before

you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth…it was not you who sent

me here, but God…” (Genesis 45:5-8).

Ordinarily, does one person matter in this life?  Ordinarily, does one event make a difference in the flow of history?  Ordinarily, does place or time or change or relationship have a bearing on anything?  Yes.  Yes.  Yes. 

The extraordinary is all around us.  It is woven in the fabric of all of life.  What we do, who we are, where we live, how we work is infused with the imprint of The Triune Personal Eternal Creator.[1] “Why does God have to be brought into everything?” the question is raised.  The answer is simple: He doesn’t, He’s already there.  From sub-atomic particles to expansive galaxies, God created it all.  From Hammurabi’s law code to the American Constitution, God’s influence affects the minds of men.  From the death of the first grader’s fish to the genocide in Sudan, God’s care remains. 

Biblical synthesis is the extraordinary fused with the ordinary.  What was once routine is transformed into a project of grace.  The insignificant becomes significant through heavenly perspective.  The usual, the normal, the regular, the customary, the scheduled must be revisited by special revelation through the eyes of believers. 

[1]Three persons in one essence explain how all of life is interrelated.  Everything in life has meaning because of God’s simultaneous multiplicity and unity.  Christians understand the interconnectedness of everything because they worship The One in Three. Understanding the diversity of life bonded by The Trinity’s work in life.   

Sunsets at Lake Bruce are spectacular. Folks from Europe have visited Mahseh and could hardly believe the wonder. The sunsets are The Creator’s blessing; in this case, shown to rest on a natural 250 acre lake in the middle of north central Indiana. God and His sunsets have quite a history. The setting sun marked the Abrahamic covenant (Genesis 15:12, 17). The exodus from Egypt was to be observed at the time God’s people left the African country: “at sunset” (Deuteronomy 16:6). Moses’ arms held out “until the going down of the sun” marked Israel’s victory over Amalek (Exodus 17:12). Israel’s territorial boundary included the western skies, earth’s star descending past The Great Sea (Joshua 1:4). Joshua 10 records a singular event: the sun’s stoppage from its normal routine, not going down until the Amorites were defeated.

The first three Gospels indicate what some might have seen as a defeat when darkeness covered the land at Jesus’ death: or as Luke says “while the sun’s light failed” (23:45). But God marks the greatest of His name by the sun’s setting (Malachi 1:11) even suggesting that while the sun set on Jesus’ life for three days “the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in his wings” (4:2). Revelation tells us that because of God’s Son, the sun’s light will no longer be needed (21:23).

“The sun knows its time for setting” (Psalm 104:19). The pinks, oranges, golds, and purples over Lake Bruce are refulgent tonight as I type these words. The One Eternal Triune Creator demonstrates His personableness by the sun that gives the earth light and warmth. His hand moves the celestial disk at will for His own good pleasure and that of His people.

Morning has a beauty all her own. Since my body seems to think it requires little sleep I spend a good deal of time awake before anyone else has stirred. I have one friend who knows that I’ll be up so he calls from Florida just to chat. These hours are best for work. Dairy farmers are in their barns. Construction crews monitor their equipment. News rooms, airports, schools, industries, all begin to buzz before sunrise.Silence at the 4 o’clock hour. Black, apart from starlight, the atmosphere is still at rest. Absence of light allows the earth a respite from activity. Darkness has its own sense of majesty. Is it any wonder that The Almighty’s presence is oft described in Scripture as His “covering” or “canopy” (2 Samuel 22:12; Psalm 18:11; 97:2) and His residence as “thick darkness” (1 Kings 8:12; 2 Chronicles 6:1)?!

Birds begin to sing around five. God’s creatures are familiar with the cycles of life as they have been created to so function. It strikes me as I listen to songbirds even now that the whole earth has been commanded to give its praise to The One who made it (Isaiah 43:20; 44: 23; 49:13). It is no wonder that the worshipper will give praise or cry out for help in the morning (Psalm 59:16; 88:13).

The first vestiges of light appear over the horizon before six. The order of creation itself was established in Genesis one. The repetitious phrase “the evening and the morning” set boundaries for time, space, and people. Science (simply, observation of how the world works) is dependent upon The Orderer who gives orders to an ordered world. Sunrise is a demonstration of faithfulness (1 Peter 4:19). As the anthem declares, “Sun, moon and stars in their courses above, Join with all nature in manifold witness, To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.”

“When morning gilds the skies, my heart awakening cries, may Jesus Christ be praised…let all the earth around ring joyous with the sound, may Jesus Christ be praised.” It would seem that the hymn writers bear witness to Scripture’s text and their addiction to the early hours of the day.