Ordinary Life

Today was a balmy January day. I didn't see that coming (though I confess that I didn't check the weather). I also didn't expect the after-dinner chaos of trying to feed puppies, at the same time as cleaning up one mess while the kids and the dog were busy making new ones in other spots. If I have to pull out the vacuum or a Lysol wipe one more time tonight, I may lose my mind!

But on a day when I've had unpredictabilities to deal with, I've been thinking a lot about how constant and dependable our lives actually are. We only think of warm January days and dog accidents as unusual because we have an orderly "normal" to compare these things to. January in Canada is cold. As in BITTER cold. House-trained pets can normally be relied upon to go outside when necessary. And fort-building at bedtime is generally known to be off-limits.

We are so quick to complain when things don't go as expected, when unusual trials meet us during the day, when our life is turned upside down by some unanticipated news. But how often do we praise our wise Creator for the orderliness of His creation? How often do we thank God that the majority of the moments of our day pass in a rather predictable way? A meteorologist can tell me exactly what time the sun will come up tomorrow morning, and I don't have to wonder if it will happen (unless the Lord returns). When I climb out of bed, my feet will hit the floor. There is no chance that I'll float to the ceiling instead. Coffee will give an me an (albeit temporary) energy boost, not cause me to drag my body back to bed. When I crack open some eggs for breakfast, the yolks won't be purple. The orderliness of creation is what allows for scientific study to exist. Experiments are repeatable because God made the world to work like a fine-tuned organic machine. 

Children grow in fairly dependable stages, too. Parenting involves a decent amount of the unforeseen, but if you think about it, even most of our dealings with the kids in our household are not wildly out of the ordinary. (Note that I said "most"!) That's why there is such a thing as parenting wisdom, handed down from generation to generation (and why the relational wisdom from the Bible still applies to us today in our modern age). 

And dogs will be always be dogs!

The next time something happens to me that I didn't see coming, and I'm tempted to focus on that one thing that is slightly (or even majorly) out of line, I want to remember that the God of order not only holds that one thing in His sovereign, organized hands, but that in the kindness of His character, He foreordained my world to spend the vast majority of time spinning in the same dependable direction. Can you imagine what life would be like in a world without order? We think this life we live is chaotic enough! So may we be thankful that:

He set the earth on its foundations, 

  so that it should never be moved. 

You covered it with the deep as with a garment; 

  the waters stood above the mountains. 

At your rebuke they fled; 

  at the sound of your thunder they took to flight. 

The mountains rose, the valleys sank down 

  to the place that you appointed for them. 

You set a boundary that they may not pass, 

  so that they might not again cover the earth. 

He made the moon to mark the seasons; 

  the sun knows its time for setting. 

You make darkness, and it is night, 

  when all the beasts of the forest creep about.

The young lions roar for their prey, 

  seeking their food from God. 

When the sun rises, they steal away 

  and lie down in their dens. 

Man goes out to his work 

  and to his labor until the evening.

O Lord, how manifold are your works. 

  In wisdom have you made them all!

(Psalm 104) 

Oh, and the sun rises in Toronto at 7:49 a.m. tomorrow. And you can quote me on that.

________________________________________________________________

Update: Here's what happened the next morning.