Fingerprints in the Ordinary
It was just an ordinary conversation in the Field House at the University of Maryland. I noticed another person using a wheelchair for mobility, when to my surprise, he stopped me and introduced himself. “Hi! I’m Ed. I’m the director of a summer camp for disabled children and adults located in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Roanoke, Virginia. How would you like to come work as a counselor this summer?”
I really didn’t know what to say. I was considering taking an American Government class over the summer to speed up the completion of my Bachelors Degree in Therapeutic Recreation. But as the summer drew closer and I began to think about whether I wanted to spend it indoors or outdoors, it was the outdoor option that was calling my name. Little did I know this small ‘yes’ would have such a big impact on my life.
This is the camp where I met the man who would become my husband. I quickly became enamored with the guitar-playing story-teller from the Appalachian Mountains. The sparks rising up out of the campfires were no match for the sparks that danced around in my heart. And the friends I met there? I’ve known them for decades.
In contrast to our gentle defining moments, sometimes defining moments come in the form of a life-altering illness, accident, childhood trauma, or an extended time of grief and loss. We experience a level of disorientation that takes time to process. My horseback riding accident instantly changed the course of my life, but this was not my most defining moment. It simply became the vehicle from which I experienced the world. Throughout the rest of my journey, most of my defining moments came from seeds silently planted in everyday life, not in noisy celebrations.
As a follower of Jesus, I often marvel at the calm, ordinary way He was born into our world. Jesus entered our world in a musty stable filled with cows and sheep on a quiet star-filled night. No noise. No celebration. No trumpet fanfare. Just the mooing of cows and the bleating of sheep. While the Prince of Peace and Lover of our soul became one of us, most of us were sleeping.
God is always inviting us to become more aware of His presence and the movement of the Holy Spirit in our lives. He is the greater context of everything that happens to us - health or sickness, wealth or poverty, success or failure, a long life or short one. His Spirit is always working within us and around us, yet it often escapes our attention.
More defining moments in my ordinary life begin to bubble up in my memory. A faithful prayer partner met with me for years, shaping the way I enter into His presence even today. I was astonished when a casual conversation with a college admissions counselor led to a Master’s Degree in Education a few years later.
Can you see the fingerprints of God working and weaving your story together, especially when you were unaware of it? Even if your past has been filled with pain and difficulty, can you identify the people and events that have shaped you? My accident was the loud event that changed my trajectory, but it was the quiet, faithful moments that followed which proved His heart is always worth trusting.
God is always working. Whether it’s in the sublime or the quiet, we can be sure He’s present and intimately involved in all the details of our lives. Every day, I ask God to open my eyes to see Him more clearly. Defining moments are all around us.
“In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.”
Proverbs 16:9
