Ordinary...
Yesterday, I had the chance to spend some time with some dear friends, as they invited me into one of their ordinary days. They welcomed me into their home and treated as me they would treat any ordinary person...like royalty. They have made it a habit to do this.
One of the women talked with me, while watching two of my children, snuggling baby Aliyah and speaking words of wisdom and affirmation to Rayah. During our time together, she extended extra kindnesses that were the ordinary outflow of her generous, kind heart...snacks given, bouncy seat and toys shared, and entertainment provided, despite my protests that she didn't have to do all of that. But she wanted to, she kept telling me. This is what I do, she said. It was an ordinary day for her. She did all of this to bless me, and to support and equip her daughter to do what she was gifted to do.
Meanwhile, her daughter was hard at it, working her amazing magic on my head of ordinary hair. I marveled as I realized all that she had moved around in her schedule, making special arrangements, and taking time out of her busy life to do my hair for me...all to be a blessing. She treated it as if it was no big deal, as if it was ordinary, and really to her, maybe it was...in the sense that she gives like this all the time, very naturally, very freely...in a very unassuming, unpretentious, non-showy way. It was such a powerful ordinary!! While she worked her artistry, we talked faith and family and laughed at ourselves, and at life.
We all laughed at how ordinary we each looked and felt today, but I know otherwise. I witnessed precious and rare glory shining from each of their faces and extra-ordinary love and kindness flowing out of each of their hearts...
Today, I was given a beauty treatment...in more ways than one. I was welcomed into the glorious beauty of another family's ordinary. They invited me into one of their ordinary days, and by each of them doing what came naturally to them, they transformed an ordinary day into an extra-ordinary one for me.
I left feeling uplifted...refreshed...like I had just been treated like royalty. I left feeling like anything but ordinary.
