Seeing the Ordinary as Extraordinary, a View from 30,000 Feet

I have no idea what she is making. It is a picture from an American factory. She is an assembly line worker. All day, every day she does just what you see here, over and over and over. My first thought was, "I would go crazy.  I could never do that - just screwing in a screw, or drilling a thousand pieces of sheet metal with a drill press over and over and over again."

Then I paused. 

I am a creature of habit and routine. In a sense I do that - different, but the same - my routines are, well, just that -  routine. I thought about all of us. Our lives are filled with routines. Our jobs are filled with routines. Our home is filled with routines. Mom's have lives of routine. Dad's have lives of routines. Our children get up, eat breakfast, get dressed, go to schools. They go to the same classes day after day at the exact same time and to the sound of the same bell, ringing over and over again.

Vanity of vanities! What kind of life are we living!? "How depressing," I thought.

But it doesn't have to be. Life can be EXTRAORDINARY. Don't quit your job just yet or hire a nanny to care for kids and do laundry! What makes life extraordinary is not that everything we do is amazing, exciting and fun. It isn't that way. It won't be that way. There will always be ordinary things that we do, that we must do. There will always be routines - maybe even as a factory worker. But all of those things become extraordinary when we step back and see them as part of something bigger.

The factory worker screws a screw into a part over and over and over. The part is used to make a simple household oven. The ovens are used by thousands to cook for friends and family. Meals are shared as celebrations. Meals are prepared for those grieving or in need. Parents meet boyfriends. New neighbors receive cookies... and on and on we could go. The factory worker is doing more than screwing in a screw or punching a piece of metal; they are a part of the lives of everyone who uses their company's product. 

Moms and dads you are doing more than washing clothes and changing diapers when you wash clothes and dry diapers. You are teaching your children what it looks like to love and to serve. You are showing them what moms and dads are supposed to do. You are ultimately showing them how God loves and cares for His children and how they should one day teach their own children. You are showing them the love of Jesus.

A meal for someone who is sick is more than just a meal.
A warm welcome is more than words and a handshake.
An invitation to gather is more than an event.
There is always more to what we do than just what we do.  Our challenge is not to get away from the ordinary, retire from it, or even spice it up. Our challenge is to step back and look at life from a greater perspective, soar above the mundane and for a moment take a view from high above - the view from 30,000 feet. There the ordinary may just be extraordinary.