Out of the ordinary

Weekends are often outside the ordinary.

This weekend more than most.

Drive-in movies on Friday, munching popcorn coated in real butter.

Even though it was 40 degrees and raining.

(In adventures such as these, we teach our children to revel

in unexpected joy found in inopportune moments of wonder.)

Saturday: a sun-soaked day at Grandma's. The men are gone

fishing in the semi-arctic at Cass Lake. The children and women

stay behind, and paint rainbows in the late afternoon sun.

We make messes that normally wouldn't be allowed - and laugh about them.


(In celebrating moments of beauty swimming in chaos

and mess, we teach our children a different path to the

worship He commands. We teach them to see His

fingerprints in a cursed and clanging world.)

A weekend full of adventure.
A weekend full of tenderness.

I see Him shining, now, after years of practice, in both dim light and full sun. Being outside the ordinary can bring some mixed emotions, some ingratitude, some chaotic churnings of the soul; but also so much joy. These out of the ordinary days are the ones that stick like glue to our memory.