What is Normal?

I've been thinking today about the word "normal"...what does it mean? Who and what does it encompass? Did I spell encompass correctly? These are my questions....this comes out of a conversation I had with a few people the other day. I was talking to them about Will's new preschool and how I love how diverse it is. We have a child from Bangladesh, one from Persia, Jewish kids, Christian kids...you get my drift. I was just going on about how beautiful that is to me and how I love it because, other than the parents at my kids schools, I don't have any friends outside of church, etc. I spent a long time the other day with my Persian friend who has just lived in Japan for 11 years amazed by her diversity and the fact that her 4 year old is currently learning English as his third language. People are amazing! So anyway, after the comments about the Iranian possibly being a terrorist (said in a joking manner, but still..) one of the people commented - "I think I just like normal people best" and the other person said "You're probably one of the only normal ones left". I had to stop the conversation right there as these were all people older than me and I didn't want to get into an argument with them that would be disrespectful. The only thing I said was that I often like the people I meet outside of the church better than some that I meet inside, they are often nicer.

Anyway, after I picked my jaw up off the floor I started thinking about the word "normal"...what is normal and who decides what is normal? By our Judeo-Christian standards, I have a very normal family. Both sets of parents are Christian, still married, grandparents were all Christian and married until death. I am married with two kids (a boy and girl even). But if you look closely in my family you will find alchoholism, people who have had brushes with the law, disfunctional relationships. By the world's standards, I am not a "normal" weight...I have a blind daughter, who is not normal. As a side note, in the circles we travel in with Lora, you would never say "normal" or "abnormal" - it has become an offensive word.

Jesus wasn't considered "normal" by His days' standards and he definately wouldn't be by ours...He was homeless, ran around with a bunch of men, hung out with criminals, told people to sell everything they had and give it to the poor, chastised the established church for being hypocritical, used confusing stories to teach truths, loved everyone, even the lepers and outsiders. Need I go on?

I don't know what the standards are for normal, but I doubt that any of us meets them. We have all been affected by sin in our world, we have all experienced tragedy and pain, we all have areas of abnormality in our lives. All of these things have shaped us into the wonderful, diverse population that we are. So maybe the next time we see our neighbor, who has a combination of bright orange and dark black hair in preparation for Halloween...instead of avoiding her like I did the other day, we (I) can say "HI" and try to get to know her. Who knows what I could learn from her and maybe she could even learn something from me....or maybe she's just a really nice person. I may never know.