A few weeks ago I was standing in the checkout queue at a local supermarket – anxious and waiting impatiently, as I had so many other things to do!

Just like any normal day in fact!

However, as I reached the till, a young boy in a pushchair behind me, suddenly stopped eating his lollipop and looked at me with a wonderful, indeed radiant, smile.

He was absolutely beaming from one side of his face to the other.

And of course I smiled back! And it was not long before several others in the queue realised what was happening, and there were smiles all round.

Even the checkout girl forgot what she was doing, as we all responded to this innocent, beautiful, heart-warming smile.

For a few moments in an ordinary day we forgot our urgency, our impatience just to get on with our lives, the things we had to do which were ever so important – and we all paused to enjoy the joy and the splendour of that precious, present moment. After that, a whole new day beckoned!

I have lost count of all those special moments I have missed in my life – all the good which I should have enjoyed and did not because I was too busy, too impatient, too blind, too insensitive, too much in a hurry.

That particular day it took the smile of a small child to remind me that perhaps the best things in life can only be felt – and that so often in our lives, the divine is revealed in the ordinary.

Do not miss it – be present to the miracle of the ordinary!

The Rev Bernard Loveland, Holy Trinity and St George Kendal