How’s your November going? This to me is sitcom season. Not a month for watching sitcoms – no time for that! – but rather feeling like I’m starring in one.
You know what I’m talking about. It’s the time of year when at least one of your children seems to need a different item of clothing or a different donation to something or other every couple of days.
I have reminders in my phone and calendar alerts and notes on the fridge to help us all remember who’s supposed to have odd socks on Monday as well as their swimming kit, whose Christmas jumper day is Thursday and whose is Friday, which Christmas fair I’ve signed up for and which gift for the fair I’m supposed to bring in this Friday and is it own clothes day? Or PJs for Children in Need? Or is it a school trip? And whose Christmas performance clashes with somebody’s carol service.
You know. I know you know. My poor husband looks at his phone, bewildered, as more coded messages appear in his digital calendar. (I prefer a paper diary, but needs must. Survival is key and the digital calendar is what enables us to keep our heads above water.)
“What does MUN stand for?”
“Does the bottle tombola have anything to do with me?”
“Why does Thursday AM say ‘socks for prisoners’?”
Anyway, as you can see I’ve had a lot on my mind. I might even describe myself as frazzled. But still, on Sunday morning when someone asks what I did this week, I won’t have a decent answer. I feel like “washing and ironing” or “family logistics” don’t really encapsulate it. Most of it will all be forgotten in a few weeks’ time.
My children probably won’t remember much of this stuff when they’re older. And that’s OK. Life doesn’t have to be remarkable. Most of life is mundane. These things, so hard to keep on top of and remember, are not ground-breaking. Nobody is really going to make a sitcom of my life. It’s just not that interesting.
And do you know what? That’s fine! Most people’s lives are mundane most of the time. But God is faithful. He honours daily faithfulness. He doesn’t need me to break any records or leave a legacy. He just wants me to be faithful, one day at a time.
As you look back over the year, if “all” you’ve done is persevere, then that is wonderful. In a world of influencers and record-breakers, God doesn’t need us to be extraordinary. He’s the extraordinary one.
Look at Ruth, for example. Her life, whilst tragic, was not exactly full of adventure. As a widow, she moved to another country. I suppose that was adventurous. But then she was busy surviving – working in the fields to gather food for herself and her mother-in-law. Ordinary, daily faithfulness. And yet she ended up being in Jesus’ family tree, and being the subject of a whole book of the Bible.
God meets people in the mundane. A world of social media can make us believe that life is supposed to be spectacular all the time, or you’re doing it wrong.
But God has been with me as I’ve done the same school run over three thousand times, and he’ll be with me forever.
Our Christmas can be ordinary. It should be a joyful feast, yes! But it can be unassuming and humble, too. We can offer our celebrations to God, with gratitude in our hearts, and know that He can do whatever he wants with us.
Maybe you will change the world. But most of us won’t. When you look at the Christmas story, it’s full of ordinary people who are overjoyed at the birth of Jesus. Let’s be like them. Plus of course, you never know what God might do with you.
‘The women living there said, “Naomi has a son!” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.’ Ruth 4.17.
Mum in Zone One 