O Lord, thank You for four generations of a family who gathered to celebrate You with gifts, yummy food and a wonderfully in-tune carol singalong. OMG, there’s nothing like partying together with You!
Jesus, You could have made Planet Earth as sleek, plain and efficient as a machine. But, OMG, I’m so glad Your beautiful mind just HAD to create beauty.
My husband and I often drive to Ohio to care for his elderly father.
Not like traveling along California’s coastline, with its infinite, sparkling waves. Not like coaxing our car up Appalachian heights, where scary curves rival breathless beauty.
A between-snows drive on Midwestern highways doesn’t raise pulse rates — unless a semi crosses the line.
Or if we focus on a sunrise. Pastel hues stripe the gray horizon, then amid sherbet-colored clouds, the butter-cake sun shines on dark chocolate fields —
Sorry. I’m driving under the influence of a post-Christmas diet. But the delicious scene raises my pulse rate. Maybe a bakery lurks nearby?
Hubby points. “The sun’s position has changed considerably since the fall equinox.” As he continues enthusiastic commentary on light angles, his pulse rate probably rises to new heights.
Mine doesn’t. Until he mentions ancient tribes who built mounds in the Anderson, Indiana, area. They marked seasons by studying scenes like this.
That’s how those Native Americans survived without phones?
My fascination with human behavior — Hubby calls it nosiness — quickly spreads to houses we pass.
I indicate a typical Indiana farmhouse. “Do they like strawberry or grape PBJ? Whatever, I’ll bet it’s homemade.”
Hubby’s look silences my mouth, but not my mind.
Yards that sport tired-looking Santas warm my heart. Someone’s farther behind than I. Others boast shining windows and perfectly sculpted bushes. Even their snowdrifts appear symmetrical. How do people live that way?
Pristine Amish homes grab me, though, with their simplicity and clotheslines full of black shirts and dresses dancing wildly in winter wind.
Slowing for buggies lets us enjoy trotting horses and large families snuggled like birds in a nest. However, rumspringa Amish teens skating down the middle of the highway don’t generate warm fuzzies.
Later, after a day of hugs, time with Dad and conversations with health care workers, we say bittersweet goodbyes. Hubby and I could drive the route home in our sleep, but watch each other closely so we don’t.
Against the sunset’s fiery rose, orange and purples, steeples along the way reach for Heaven. My thoughts do too.
Glory to God in the highest.
One more extraordinary ordinary drive.
Your Extraordinary Ordinary: Describe your latest amazing, everyday drive.
Jesus, I love the sparkly red and green that help celebrate Your birth. Frankly, though, just as those colors clash with orange, Christmas promotions gobble up Thanksgiving. No time for honoring You, the Giver of all good things. So, OMG, at our house, orange will linger longer!
With one daughter born on this day, and another who later married a great guy on her sister’s birthday, OMG, how can I help but give You thanks for August 16!
O Lord, nothing looked deader than the brown, shriveled seeds I planted last spring. But You breathed Your life into them, and now, a hundred colorful reminders of Your Resurrection dance for joy in the west wind. OMG, to think that You can do the same for us, if we let You. Alleluia!
O Lord, my narrow-minded calendar declares Easter is over and done. But OMG, for days afterward, the springtime world will shout out Your Resurrection! Alleluia!
OMG, Thank You for my baby crocuses. Though tiny and socially distanced, they cannot help but sing You a colorful hallelujah chorus!
O Lord, when I was a kid, gratitude didn’t come easy. Mom would prompt, “What do you say?” and I’d mutter the “Thank you” that got grown-ups off my back. In 2020, it doesn’t come easy, either. Still, OMG, thank You. Thank You. Thank You!
O my God, every morning, my funny, godly, 91-year-old dad sang, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty” to You. But as of last week, OMG, he’s singing to You face to Face.