It occurs to me that most of the people we consider exceptional did not consider themselves so. In the scriptures we read of Esther, Abraham, Peter and others who played monumental roles in saving their people, fathering nations, leading the Church. The letters they wrote, the decisions they made, the work they did, for the most part, were a series of daily challenges. Their interactions with people were much like ours. Their choices to believe what was unseen, unsafe, yet spoken by God, made every difference.

Are we not born into exceptional circumstances as well? Don’t each of us find ourselves on a platform of influence and life changing decisions as others look on? Our time of real (influence) is brief but full of opportunity. The fellow-creatures who look on, imitating or decrying us are wonderfully made in God’s image. Our circumstances seem mundane and accidental at times, but they are anything but mundane and accidental. We live in an exceptional time, on an exceptional planet among exceptional beings. Our challenge to recognize the handiwork of our Creator in our lifetime is common to all of us.