Christian Living

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About two years ago, I had an experience that truly changed me forever. It was the most ordinary of moments. But it taught me something about this faith journey, this God I serve and about my willingness to respond.

At the time, every morning on the way to work I would stop for a cup of coffee. Many times there are people I know—teachers from my son’s school, neighborhood friends or other acquaintances. It’s a very friendly place and I enjoyed stopping there. I recognized an older man that was there every morning and a friend introduced me to “Joe”. Joe had a friendly smile and always acknowledged me. We’d talk about the weather and I’d mention that I didn’t like his Yankees cap (being a Phillies fan myself). I began to enjoy seeing Joe. We had a nice camaraderie and harmless banter that went on between us. It was sweet.

When I had to change my work schedule for awhile, I missed Joe for several weeks. The owner of the deli told me, “Boy Joe really misses you and asks for you every day.” The next day Joe showed when he knew I would be there. He gave me a big hug and held me at arm’s distance to look at my face. With tears brimming in his light blue eyes he said, “My wife was Betty. She died last year. When I met you, something about you reminded me of Betty. And then I realized it was the way you really looked at me and you smile at me every day. For an old man who misses the rock of his life, seeing your smile, was like Betty smiling at me. It is like you are an angel sent for me.”

That moment was an ordinary moment, just as the connection between Joe and I was ordinary. But it became such an extraordinary moment in my life. As I’ve grown even deeper in my faith, I have realized how God uses the commonplace, average moments to accomplish extraordinary things. A smile. A friendly word. That was all I gave of myself. But to Joe, it was something much more. It taught me how God uses the ordinary—ordinary people, ordinary places, ordinary words, ordinary smiles—to achieve such extraordinary things.
After Joe died a few months ago I received a card from his son thanking me for my kindness to his father. “My father didn’t miss a day of trying to see his “Phillies girl” and I didn’t understand it until I saw how happy those few moments of the day made my father in remembering my mother. He thought you were an angel. I know you met by chance, but you had a remarkable effect on my dad.” Receiving this and realizing I did NOT meet his father by chance, and there was a bigger plan. That ordinary moment taught me something that God had been trying to tell me for a long time I think.

Every moment is gift. Look. And see. Hear. And listen. And at this time of year as we are asked to be awake and alert, reminds me of the gift of Joe. Recently, I learned about St. Benedict’s thoughts on “listening with the ears of the heart.” That resounds so deeply with me. For when I do that I am connected with someone at a deeper level. I notice the things they don’t say, or that they may need to share more.

How many moments am given that I have missed? How many times in my busyness, have I rushed my child when he needed to share something? How many times have I been focused on me instead of the need of the neighbor next to me? How many times have I felt the Spirit nudging me to move a certain way, and yet I have stayed stagnant or unmoved?
I think of Mary and Joseph and all of the Christmas story. Ordinary people in an ordinary, even lowly stable. Ordinary people used to bring the Savior of the world and of our lives into being. What mystery, what splendor, what beauty there is in the ordinary. Because truly none of it is really ordinary. It might seem usual, the same, monotonous, but I’m learning so clearly that it isn’t. We are the hearts and hands and feet of the Savior of the world. The One who came to save us, wants to also use us to accomplish His kingdom.

Emmanuel, God with us. Sometimes ordinary. Sometimes extraordinary

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