Jesus taught people by telling stories or parables, often focussing on an ordinary event (such as gardening or building) to give the listeners a familiar background into which He could reveal spiritual truth. Stories and parables are a fantastic way of engaging the listener and drawing them in; the ordinary and everyday happenings in life are often the starting point for our journeys of discovery.

God is everywhere and can be found just as much in the ordinary as in the spectacular. One of the dangers of our spiritual walk is if it becomes separated or divided from our everyday living. We put God into a box and see no connection between what we read or hear on a Sunday and how we live our lives during the week. Everything is compartmentalised and separated.

God is not interested in that kind of living. He is interested in speaking to us at any time, in various ways, and in our living out our faith in every practical situation we face. ‘God in my living, there in my breathing, God in my waking, God in my sleeping’, as the Tim Hughes song puts it. We need God to be everything to us, at all times, in every situation, no matter where we are or what we are doing.

One of the joys of working in St Mark’s has been to find God in the ordinary, in the mundane, as much in the practical jobs (such as clearing rubble and soldering joints) as in the church services we hold on Sundays. Daily we are reminded of the truth of Colossians 3:17:

“And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father.”

As we see God in the ordinary jobs of life and find Him in the everyday happenings, let us learn to live lives that are wholly given over to Him, so that God may truly be our everything.