Extraordinarily Ordinary ~ Significantly Insignificant

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A thought has been consistently pestering me, filling me with awe for quite some time, particularly over the last few years.  Although difficult for me to articulate well, I am consistently reminded how ordinary and extraordinary, how significant and insignificant we all are.

I have met many people from all walks of life since joining the Sinsinawa Dominicans five short years ago, and many more people before that.  Incredibly gifted yet incredibly ordinary people, doing incredibly good yet incredibly ordinary works.  Each one uniquely created yet each created in the image and likeness of God.  But 5-1/2 years ago I was not aware of their existence, and vice versa. Imagine! 

I guess what I’m trying to say is that we are surrounded by incredible stories that we may never hear, stories of people we may never meet – whose lives, like our own, are filled with passion and sorrow, hopes and fears, doubt and deep faith and stumbling faith.  Stories that are real, which are being told and heard, stories touching someone somewhere, lives being lived every day in every neighborhood, every city, every nation, and in every corner of God’s marvelous Creation!

For everyone who has ever crossed our paths, whose story has become a line or a page in our own, we can rejoice in the knowledge that there are literally billions of other stories we simply have not had the chance to read.  Each one is unique, each equally beloved by God, each so significant in God’s eyes. 

My prayer is that 2017 will find the eyes of our own hearts opened to see the intrinsic value and significance of all people, whether known or unknown.

Kathy Flynn, OP
Sinsinawa, WI

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