Just an ordinary day...turned extraordinary

      Have you ever considered that God does amazing things in the midst of ordinary days?
      The shepherds were watching their sheep on the hillsides, just like every other night, and then the angel showed up with the earth-changing news that Jesus, the Messiah, had been born.The widow and her sons were struggling through a financial crisis, just like they had for many other days, when Elijah showed up to exhibit God's incredible power of provision through the filling of jars. Gideon was hiding in a wine cellar trying to thresh wheat when the angel hailed him and started him on the path to be his nation's unlikely hero. The woman who had been bleeding for 12 years, & had spent all her money on unsuccessful cures, heard that Jesus was in town and through a touch of faith was miraculously healed.
      Hundreds of stories are recorded in the pages of the Bible and many began as just one more ordinary day. What turned it into the extraordinary was not the circumstance or situation, but the intervention of God into that circumstance. As the characters went about their normal, everyday lives  amazing things happened. None of them woke up that particular morning to trumpets blaring or
angelic pronouncements that the day had come for their miracle. They were just going about their business & God stepped in!
      Sure, there are those occasions where God gives a timeline or at least a general idea of when He intends to do something, such as in the case of Noah's ark or Pharaoh's warnings, but most often it seems that He moves in the course of daily, normal routines.
      That's an exciting thought. The God of the universe is able to intervene into my scary or upsetting situation at any time...not just on Sunday. He chooses the time and place according to His plan. My miracles could be just around any corner, on any ordinary day! So could yours!
       Those thoughts make me want to do a couple of things: I want to wake up each day in eager expectation of the wondrous things God wants to do in, through and for me that day. I also want to be aware of things that happen, for not all miracles are all-encompassing! Each day holds hundreds of little miracles, from the beauty of nature to the car accident that was avoided. And I want to live in gratitude, for in reality there are no "ordinary days" because each and every day that we walk with God is an extraordinary gift that has its own wonders if we allow Him to orchestrate & permeate our lives! We just have to stop long enough to look for His interventions & slow down enough to appreciate them!