Hi Friends, Last week I shared about the Feast of Normalcy… the banquet the Lord sets before us in every moment of every ordinary day. (If you missed it, you can catch it here.) But what about when life turns sideways? What about when the word “normal” sounds foreign to your ears and life is war-torn (for some of you, literally)? I believe that in difficult seasons of life, our need for the feast of normalcy actually increases. Our craving for ordinary—for patterns and expecteds—actually spikes when what we’ve known turns upside down. And that craving for normalcy: even that is from Him. Into the very fabric of existence God wrote pattern. On the most earth-shattering of days, the sun rises in the east. Even when your heart races, “unknown” lurking behind every turn of the hour hand, the sun still marches across the sky at just the same rate, sinks in the west at just the same time. Spring follows winter, summer follows spring—it’s like the world around us is unaware of the grief, pain, or waiting that fills the days for many. It can feel wrong, unfair even, that nature carries on when all else is coming to pieces. But there is One who is actively turning the page every day, changing the scene every season, and He is not unaware. Could it be that even here, He sets a feast before the unsteady heart? Perhaps He is saying, “Even when the whole world falls apart, I never change”. There’s a feast in the normalcy happening all around us. A feast of His faithfulness. His goodness. His constancy and trustworthiness. And just as He lifted up bread and wine on the night before His greatest suffering, lifting up ordinary food and drink always found on the table in that day, He wants us to remember Him. In our eating and drinking. In our sleeping and waking. And yes, even in our trembling under the covers in our greatest hardships as the dark of night surrounds. Because the sun will rise even then, and it comes as a feast to remind us: He is here. –Anna |
I am a singer, songwriter, wife, mother, Jesus follower. I send out a 2-minute read every Tuesday about Jesus and life in God.
Dear Friends, When my oldest son was two years old, he used to do this thing. Oftentimes he did this when he was tired, or frustrated, or lonely. He would pull on me and say, “Sing about me?” And so, I’d lift him onto my lap, hold him close, and sing. We sang about the oatmeal he had for breakfast, how he had blueberries and said no to the cream. We sang about the consequence he got an hour ago for refusing to obey. We sang about how he played with the excavator he got for his birthday, and...
Hi Friends, I am an all-or-nothing gardener. And by that I mean that I do absolutely nothing until the task can’t possibly wait another day, and I have to do all of it at once. Weeding, planting, preparation… these don’t have to be stressful things. You can plan ahead, do a bit each day. You know, wisdom and all that. But I’ve been all-or-nothing gardening for so long, I’ve come to accept it as a weakness I’ll likely have lifelong. Resignation and green-thumb mediocrity. That’s where I’ve...
Hi Friends, Happy Mother’s Day week! I once saw a video where a woman shared “one simple tip to keeping your home spotless”. In the next scene, she ushers her children and husband out the front door, and closes it behind them. Brilliant! We chuckle at memes like this because of the seed of truth underneath them. There is so much pressure on mothers, self-imposed and otherwise, to do it all—keep a perfect home, advance her career, remember all the milestones, volunteer at all the things. We...