Extraordinarily Ordinary

We are bombarded with pictures of airbrushed beauty.
Perfect bodies and perfect facial features that never seem to age.
Tanned skin that is paid for and acquired in beds made for bronzing.
Clothes with expensive accessories that would feed a family.

We are bombarded with society’s idea of beauty.
We are buying into a lie.
We starve ourselves and compare ourselves and remake ourselves to fit the mold.
We are losing ourselves in the process.

Would we enjoy walking in a garden and seeing the same flower?
Would we pass right by after a while because our senses are saturated with sameness?
Would we enjoy every tree being the same?
Who determines the standard by which all other things are measured?

Models with pouting faces and no hips walk down runways.
Another type of beauty gets no attention, no tweets, and no Instagram pictures.
Another type of beauty goes unnoticed.
This type of beauty is extraordinarily beautiful.

It is the beauty of the ordinary.
The simple beauty that comes from inside.
The kind of beauty that manifests itself in sacrifice and service.
The kind of beauty that is never manufactured; it just exists.

I saw her as I was shopping.
She was pushing a stroller with another child by her side.
She had her hair up in a banana clip with wisps falling down the side of her face.
She had her jeans rolled up and she wore flat comfortable shoes.

Her little girl squealed with delight.
They were approaching the playground that shopping centers offer as diversion.
The little girl ran ahead as the mom followed behind with the stroller.
She approached the playground, put the brake on the stroller and bent down.

She got her other child out of the stroller and carried him towards the slide.
Her little girl had already gone down the slide a few times, talking to no one in particular.
The young mother was stunningly beautiful.
Not by society’s standards, but by God’s.

The young mother was attuned to her children.
She praised her daughter for her expert climbing ability.
She helped her little boy go down the slide.
She taught her children the importance of taking turns and being kind.

She exuded simple beauty.
She had minimal makeup, she had mother’s hips and she was lovely.
Her beauty was in her countenance.
Her beauty was extraordinarily ordinary.

The kind of beauty that cannot be adequately described.
The kind of beauty that is found in its uniqueness.
The kind of beauty that cannot be copied.
The kind of beauty that just is.

There is another kind of beauty.
It is beauty that goes unreported.

Beautiful are the feet of those who stand outside abortion clinics and pray.
Beautiful are the hands that bake the cakes and arrange the flowers all over the country.
Beautiful are the hearts of the police and fire fighters who are the first responders.
Beautiful are the citizens who line up to protect police against violence in their city.

Beautiful are the foster parents that give children a home in the meantime.
Beautiful are the couples that choose to adopt a child who has no one to love them.
Beautiful are the doctors and nurses that protect life at all costs.
Beautiful are the farmers that grow the food for all of us to enjoy.

Beautiful are the teachers that fight a system while trying to teach a child.
Beautiful are the volunteers that keep everything running smoothly.
Beautiful are the janitors and custodians who clean up after us.
Beautiful are the husbands and wives that covenant before God to be married.

Beautiful is the extraordinarily ordinary.
The type of beauty that goes unnoticed until it is gone.

That kind of beauty is quiet until it is threatened.
That kind of beauty will fight for the liberty to be extraordinarily ordinary.
That kind of beauty knows that manufactured beauty cracks and peels after a while.
That kind of beauty is not culturally engineered.

That kind of beauty is a God-given gift.
That kind of beauty is in our freedoms and our inalienable rights.
That kind of beauty is worth fighting for.
That kind of beauty cannot be lost in experimentation.

There are things that just are.
There are things that cannot be changed.
There are things that are the fabric of our society.
These are the things that stand the test of time because God says so.

Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we don’t give up. (Galatians 6:7-9)

Don’t give up!
Press on and fight for the extraordinarily ordinary.
It is the fabric of our lives.
It is what God has woven together to bind us and strengthen us.

It is worth fighting for.
The ordinary beauty of marriage between a man and a woman.
The ordinary beauty found in the sanctity of life from the womb to the grave.
The ordinary beauty of freedom of religion and religious liberty.

We live our days in the extraordinarily ordinary.
We are not airbrushed clones of what society says is beautiful.
Society does not know this kind of beauty because society disdains the ordinary.
We who are ordinary must stand up before it is too late.

Stand up for the mothers in banana clips helping their children on slides.
Stand up for bakers, and florists, and photographers who serve with their gifts.
Stand up for those who cannot stand for themselves.
Stand up and cherish the fact that you are extraordinarily ordinary.

God made everything and it is good.
Our beauty is His beauty because we are His image bearers.
He has made everything beautiful in its time. (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
It’s time to stand up and cherish the beauty of the extraordinarily ordinary.

Amen.