God is EXTRAordinary

Yesterday in church I had the awesome privilege of hearing a sermon by John Bevere. He spoke about the extraordinary GRACE of God. You can find the whole sermon here, just look on the right side and click on the one with John Bevere's name.

Today I want to take it one step further and just chat with you about the extraordinary-ness (writer's prerogative to make up a word at will) of God, our Father.

Mr. Bevere explained to us that extraordinary means to go beyond the usual and that it's antonyms were normal, and ordinary. Let me say that again - the OPPOSITE of extraordinary is normal. He went on to say that God does not want us to have a "normal" life, but to have an extraordinary life full of the power of HIS grace.

Well I think God showed us just how extraordinary he wanted our life to be in His creation. Several years ago I had the opportunity to visit the Grand Canyon. Pictures can not possibly do it justice. It is magnificent.


But let's go smaller than a canyon created when God flooded the earth because of man's sinfulness. What about trees. How many varieties of trees are there? Many will say "man" has made the majority of those varieties, but God had to have had His hand in it. How else could man do anything? "Without Him I can do NOTHING." (emphasis mine) A quick Google search netted me a page that says there could be close to 100,000 species of trees. One-hundred thousand. That's not the number of trees, but types of trees. Astounding. Look at the Crepe Myrtle in the picture closely. What do you see? Leaves, flowers, branches. But what about all that you don't see? The water traveling inside those branches. The roots beneath the ground ferreting out nutrients.

Now let's turn to a sunset. Brilliant colors all mixed from a palette made by God's own hand. Yes, you can tell me it's from the sun reflecting on this, that, or the other, but I'm going to tell you that it's there by the hand of our EXTRAordinary God.

The water cycle - rain, vapor, clouds, then rain again. EXTRAordinary.

I have tons of pictures of God's EXTRAordinary-ness. Many I've posted here before. Others I'll post at another time. What I want you to see in what I've posted today is that God has made creation EXTRAordinary because He is EXTRAordinary.

One more example and I think it the best of them all. A child.

During this season, we celebrate the birth of a special child - Jesus, the Messiah (Christ). If you celebrate any form of Christmas, you celebrate his birth. But what of ordinary children? How are they special? Let's consider these facts, which I found in numerous places, but took from here.

• Heartbeat by day 21
• By week 7, organs are forming, blood type is established, eyes are forming
• Week 8: hands and feet are visible, baby moves around inside the amniotic sac
• By week 20, fingernails and toenails are formed, baby recognizes its mothers voice
• Weeks 38-40 - baby is considered full-term, lungs are mature

Forty weeks. That's all it takes. Is man responsible for this EXTRAordinary creation? No. We are privileged to take part. The responsibility of caring for this miniature "image of God" rests on our shoulders, but we can not claim responsibility for his or her perfection. Each finger and toe in the right place. Eyes and ears and nose. Arms and legs. Even if everything is not as it should be, children (ALL children) are a blessing of our EXTRAordinary God. They are here for us to love, even if some are only among us for a short time. 

How can you doubt the EXTRAordinary-ness of such a God?

Many blessings,

Ginger