Today was a very normal day.
Today was a very un-unusal day.
Today was a very blessed day.
My four-year-old grandson, Raphael, doesn’t have a brain tumor, brain damage, or any kind of “unusual.” Today could have been a totally different kind of day if his MRI had revealed something other than “normal.” And I’ve never been so grateful for a normal kind of day.

Yet I’m reminded that sometimes I’m not grateful for normal kinds of days. Just because I’m not grateful. I’m not actively grateful that the sun rose and set and my great God is still on His throne. Even when it’s a boring kind of day I should be grateful. Things could be different. And often they are.

Lest you end up damaging your brain wondering why Raphael would have an MRI, it started three weeks ago when he fell off the bed and hit his head. He cried quite a bit. Most often he pops up and says, “I’m OK.” But this time as I happened to be talking to his mom on Skype, I watched as he tumbled off the bed and for a moment was still. Then he cried and cried. For days a spot on his head was sensitive to the touch. And then he started complaining of a headache.

My daughter took him to the doctor and he had a CATscan. The technician said it revealed a sinus infection (thus the headache) and a spot on his brain that looked “old.” Darcy told him Raphael was a two-month-early preemie and had some bleeding on his brain. The technician couldn’t say it was from that and an MRI was scheduled. For two weeks we wondered what February 7th would be like. The day after the MRI.

Now we know the MRI results were normal. And life continued normally. And gratefully.

Of course, all of us will experience the hard times when the tests don’t come back “normal.” My own brother recently returned home from a six-week stay in the hospital for a bone marrow transplant to fight myeloma, blood cancer. The transplant was successful but the process was horrendous. “Normal” hasn’t been a part of his vocabulary for seven months. He would love to return to just an un-unusal kind of day. We pray and hope that is God’s will for him.

So, what can you rejoice in today that is “normal”? What praises can you give God because it’s just another kind of un-unusual day? Even though it’s sort of a boring day, I bet you can find a lot to thank God for. Whether or not the test results were normal.