The Magnificent Mundane

Pulling back the quilted blanket at 5:45 this morning, I head to the bathroom for the third time, eyes closed, counting my steps in the dark.  It been so hot, yesterday breaking the record and topping out at 105 degrees, I believe, that staying hydrated has its definite disadvantages.  As I head back to bed, the thought crosses my mind...

'The only way I'm ever going to find time to blog is to jot my thoughts down on paper!  Is that how Sheri is able to do it, with a houseful of kiddos?  Does Ann ever sleep or is she writing wherever she goes and then copying it to her laptop...?'  These questions are a mystery I'd like solved! So, with pad in hand, I write scrambled thoughts in hopes that the words will come together and make sense.

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Every morning, at about 7:20, bookbag on my back and water bottle loaded with about seventeen ice cubes, I head out the door leaving behind sleeping teenagers, probably dreaming about Halo, the parents snoring and one adolescent rooster exercising his new-found vocal reminder that, "I am the king of the roost."  I'm on my way to my son's home to care for my 'new' grandchildren, Kyler and Keira.

When they wake, which isn't too long after I arrive, we cuddle, eat breakfast, they jump on the trampoline until sweat is visible on their faces.  Then I bring them inside, they dress themselves, make their own beds and I brush their teeth, which includes swishing and spitting the special mouthwash mommy bought, all the while reminding them of God's goodness, His gifts like running water, air conditioning and legs to walk to gramma's house!

After everything is finished, the water bottle filled again and the baby strapped in the stroller, Kyler will either carry his camera or ride his scooter and we head back to gramma's house before the sun melts us.  It also helps to walk because, isn't it a goal to tire them out so they'll take a long nap?  Except that I'm the only one who usually gets tired!

Each day holds quite a bit of mundane routine. 

As Paul Tripp reminds:

"...approaching the family as a theological community means getting very practical about what it means to follow God in the mundane, everyday situations of life.  We don't do very many grand and significant things in our life.  Most of us will not be written up in history books.  Most of us will only be remembered by family and perhaps a few friends.  Most of us will be forgotten in two or three generations after our deaths.  There simply are not many grand moments of life, and we surely don't live life in those moments.  No, we live life in the utterly mundane.  We exist in the bathrooms, bedrooms, living rooms, and hallways of life.  This is where the character of our life is set.  This is where we live the life of faith.  Thus we need to teach our children to take this Godward focus into the most mundane moments of life."

If this is true, and I believe it is, then the journey itself isn't as important as how I savor these moments.

I made my daughter an apron for her birthday--one she can wipe little girl's noses and hands with as well as keep her own hands clean as she serves her family in the mundane routine of everyday living. 

What is profound about that little project is that as I sat at my sewing machine, Kyler carried a chair over, sat down next to me and watched, asked questions, and was genuinely interested in me, in what I was sewing.  He fiddled with my magnetic pin cushion designing towers, or 'caught them' with the magnet when I was finished with one, all the while telling me what a 'great' job I was doing.

The mundane became magnificent at that moment.  As I included him in my project, he responded with words of affirmation.  We made history together.  That event most likely won't end up on page twenty-two of some tome sitting on a library shelf, but it's in the archives of this grandmother's journal entries. 

For two days, they each watched as I made gifts: one for Rachael and one for his little sister...a 'beeutiful' dress that she's worn yesterday and again today!  To think I only have two more weeks to invest in these precious little people.

One never knows, this side of heaven, what mundane tasks will become grand in the Maker's hands.