Our dryer broke this week….(It actually started smoking!) We bought it (very!) used back in 2003 for $25, so we can’t complain. However, I needed to do laundry today and was sort of hoping UPS would show up with a mysterious package that happened to be a new dryer. Needless to say, my solution came in the form of my husband stringing up some rope in the backyard.
In part, I knew that line-drying all of our clothes was going to be inconvenient – but part of me started to daydream a little.
I want you to close your eyes and picture someone working with clothes on a clothesline. What do you see?
If you’re anything like me, you see a family that miraculously only has white clothing, big billowy sheets, a gorgeous braided wicker basket piled high with the fresh laundry, and the sun shining down just so on the beautiful farmyard. (And the woman working with the laundry is probably in a super-cute vintage-style dress. She might be wearing a scarf in her hair.)
*Image via cobistyle.com
We as a culture tend to romanticize things don’t we? We are constantly looking to make ordinary things extraordinary. We seek perfection and miss the beauty of reality.
Life rarely looks like a movie. All too often we get caught up chasing down daydream scenarios and just-so endings that we miss out on the moment. Even in times of trial when we’re desperate for a solution, we miss God’s provision when His solution looks differently than the movie ending we’ve played out in our head.
White knights rarely ride in on horses. Provision and blessing don’t usually look like a Hollywood script or the pages of a best-selling book. More often than not, provision looks like a hodge-podge of clothes taken from a cracked plastic laundry basket and hung to dry on ropes strung between your deck and your swing-set.
Don’t miss out on the blessings and solutions around you while you’re waiting for something “magical” or extraordinary. When a solution or provision comes your way, don’t downplay it because it’s not “as good” as your unreasonable expectations. I wanted a new dryer to fall from the sky. I got make-shift clothesline. I wanted a scene out of the 50’s in a movie. I got real-life. There was no vintage dress, no wicker basket, and no billowy sheets. But what there was, was a solution – God’s provision – an answer. Our clothes got dry (for free!)
Even without dramatic background music, perfect lighting, and scripted details – your life is something worth taking note of. There is beauty and wonder and blessing all around -even when it doesn’t look like you imagined it would.
What provision or blessing has gone unrecognized in your own life because it didn’t look the way you wanted it to? What have you taken for granted? How have your needs been met this week? Take a minute to appreciate simple provision and the immense worth of your extraordinary ordinary life.
