Water, Bread, Blood and Dirt
Jesus asked them: "Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember?"
Mark 8:17-18
And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.
John 1: 14
Friends,
My morning begins early. Little feet running toward the bed and a yelling whisper, “Daddy, are you up?”
“You bet” I say.
Off to the kitchen we go for our daily bread and my first cup of coffee. We look for shoes, which are often dirty from the previous day’s adventures. We fix hair, wash hands and brush teeth. We take medicine and frequently refresh Band-Aids on scrapes and cuts. We hustle out the door to school, work and the world.
It’s all pretty normal. With some variance, I bet you recognize the rhythms and the elements that make up our days.
The amazingly good news is this: in the center of the Christian story is water, bread, blood and dirt. Our hope is at home in the basic, the regular and the common. It is in the ordinary stuff that God shows up. The Word becomes flesh, John’s gospel tells us, and it is here that we see the glory of God. This glory is visible every day in the ordinary day to day lives we live, if only we have eyes to see and ears to hear.
Join me this week in praying that God might wake us up to the power and possibility that lives in each ordinary day. When we glimpse God, the Word made flesh, then there is nothing more natural than giving thanks.
Blessings,
Ben