The Second Gaze - Ordinary

“I should have brought my camera!”  

I thought yesterday was going to be an “ordinary” January morning.  It was the typical grey, cloudy morning that we have in Cincinnati in January and so I decided not to bring my camera with me on my walk. And it went exactly that way until a woman pulled over in her minivan and told me to look for the bald eagle up ahead.  I had heard about eagles being at Winton Woods but hadn’t seen any as yet.  So, I went to where she told me and sure enough there was the eagle and I cursed the fact that I chose to leave my camera in the car and all I had was my phone.  So, what had been an ordinary morning changed quite a bit when seeing that majestic animal.  The only other time I remember seeing a bald eagle out in nature was when we were in Alaska 10 years ago.  

But it would not have happened if that woman hadn’t stopped a random guy walking his dog to share the news.  I would not have seen the eagle on the path that I normally took as I had to go out of my normal way to where the eagle was.  As I continued on after this, I shared with several others who I saw along the way to look for the eagle themselves.  

The second gaze is what this speaks to how this can happen in other ways than just seeing an eagle on a morning walk.  Most of us go about our daily lives, doing many of the same things day after day, locked into normal ordinary routines.  However, there are times that the extra-ordinary breaks in and surprises and blesses us in beautiful ways.  And that in-breaking comes sometimes from what we experience directly or from the willingness of others to share their experience just as this anonymous woman in the minivan did.  

She could have kept that blessing to herself but I am so grateful that she didn’t.  So, maybe we should go into each day with the expectation that something extra-ordinary may come and that when it does to be willing to share it with others to make their ordinary a bit more extra-ordinary.  

Now to the One who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to that One be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Ephesians 3:20