Do you ever wonder….. like me, what daily family life looked like in Jesus’ family? Like for instance, did they get the flu? Was there a chore chart? Were Joseph and Mary up til the crack of dawn putting little ones back to bed after just one more drink of water, or bedtime story? Did they live “normal” family life?
What is normal family life anyways?
Author Patsy Clairmont says “normal is just a setting on your dryer.” I totally love this line and refer to it often when women share their struggle of maintaining “normal” during crisis in their lives. But, I just might have some new advice for my sweet friends like Cory who is a 30ish regal redhead kicking the C-word with sass and class, while caring for her three young kiddos and hubs. She’s a positive light in the business world as well as the medical community as she takes on new meds, physical therapy, puking, fatigue, doubt and fear! Or my sweet Becca, she’s a tender mother of three, whose young son Wil is pushin the C-word head on like a Warrior! She is literally a diamond in the business world and a force to be reckoned with when it comes to her children and her faith. Living the minister wife life surely has prepared her for the abnormal ..right!? Now her days are filled with long drives to the hospital and long hours of waiting for treatments, and brain freeze figuring out how to answer the hard questions her child is asking.
Well here it is girls……….take yourselves into the laundry room turn the dryer to normal and lay over the top of it! This may be as close to normal as you’ll get for awhile, and guess what it’s not normal!!
I picture Mary young and afraid, not married and expecting a child. Not just any child, Gods child, surely this was a new normal/not normal for her. She rode across the rough terrain on a donkey to deliver our King on the straw lined floor where cattle slept. She knew not, or not for long the steady routine or humdrum rhythm of daily family life in a home. Raising her son she followed him as he traveled to dusty, dirty places on foot, bringing light to the lost and then she ended up at Calvary.
Sweet Girls, even in the midst of your sorrow and struggle as you long for normal remember, this world has nothing for you. As your tears fall, let them fill the hands of Jesus as he catches each one. Feel his embrace assuring you that he will not leave you, or allow your pain to consume you. As you kiss those tender cheeks of your children remember that they like you, are the apple of the Fathers eye… and tell them so. And when you think you’ll fall, take your husband’s hand and hold each other up embracing this new normal/not so normal life.
Loving God, consume my sweet friends filling them with your Holy Spirit. Give them each the desires of their heart as they bring glory and honor to you in all that they are going through. In Jesus name Amen.