Some days I am struck by the unbidden rapture in the evocations of the familiar: snowy and papery (June in North Carolina) crepe myrtle canopies over sunny yellow day lilies in the highway median, pink and yellow (swathed on the college president’s lawn) tulips, regal creamy lemony-almost-like-dessert (outside my childhood bedroom window) magnolia blossoms, the scent of (Grandma’s) boxwood and (Mom’s May birthday) lily of the valley, the catchy melody of a (high school weekend) song on the radio or (son’s teenage right-before-leaving-home-favorite) as background in a store, the (first ever back yard) zhwirr of cicadas and chirp of crickets on a summer night.
There is something mysterious and magnificent in the emotions evoked by ordinary things. Only a creative Designer could craft our senses and our brains in such a way that familiar sights, sounds, and scents would (and could!) strum our heart strings, stir our memories, and transport us to faraway places and times. What richness He adds to life! “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven. He has made everything beautiful in its time.” “In him we live and move and have our being.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1,11; Acts 17:28)
Creator God, may all the ‘ordinaries’ that remind me of loves and joys and pleasures through the years of my life turn me to their Source, the Giver of every good gift and Fount of every blessing. Tune my heart, moment by moment, to sing Your praise.
