11.28.2009

Sacred in the Ordinary: It is Well

I am tempted to search for the extraordinary. I catch myself longing for the incredible. I fight the urge to notice the spectacular. In doing so, I risk missing the most extraordinary, incredible and spectacular of all... the sacred in the ordinary.

My Moment...

It is our nighttime routine to rock our little guy while giving him a bottle of warm milk before putting him to bed. As we are rocking him we sing to him. I always include the hymn "It is Well" in my bedtime rocking selections.

My MIL was introducing me to a new singing group online. The song she selected to have them sing for me to listen to was "It is Well". I was holding our little guy on my lap at the time. As they started to sing I simply said, "It's our song."

As we listened, we watched him and his reaction to the music on the computer screen. Suddenly, I saw something that astonished me. In the same instant I started looking to my MIL to see if she had seen the same thing, she said, "He knows the words!"

I had not imagined it. I really had seen what my eyes thought. Our little guy who turns 21 months old today, who speaks just a very few spoken words.... mouthed a few of the words when they got to the chorus!

My friends, I don't know of an ordinary moment that could have become more sacred for me this week than the experience of that moment. Watching his little lips mouth those simple yet profound words.

It truly is... well with my soul.


It Is Well
By Horatio. G. Spafford, 1873


Verse 1:

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll;

Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say, It is well, it is well, with my soul.


Verse 2:
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, let this blest assurance control,

That Christ has regarded my helpless estate, and hath shed His own blood for my soul.


Verse 3:

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought! My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!


Verse 4:

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight, the clouds be rolled back as a scroll;

The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend, even so, it is well with my soul.

Chorus:

It is well, with my soul, It is well, it is well, with my soul.



What ordinary moment became sacred to you this week?

Share your moment in the comments or do your own post at your own blog and link to Mr. Linky below. Guidelines for participating can be found here.



Read more about my thoughts behind the Sacred in the Ordinary.

"There is no such thing in anyone's life as an unimportant day." -Alexander Woollcott

6 comments:

  1. I love that you have a little one practically the same age as my little one!
    What a precious story. It made my eyes "well" up.

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  2. Thank you for sharing that beautiful moment and reminding us all to look at the beauty of those "ordinary" moments. I am a MIL and can now share those moments with my daughter in law as she tends to our new little granddaughter. What joy! Both of our DIL's enjoy hearing little snippets from our past and the lives of their husbands.

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  3. A truly sacred moment Donnetta. I can never get through that precious hymn without getting all choked up. How wonderful that he should learn such words.
    I just imagine it.

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  4. What a sweet, sweet moment. We don't realize just how much those little ones absorb. What a treasure!

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  5. That is precious! I used to sing that one to my little ones, too.

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