Extra/Ordinary

Do you remember the first time you heard and understood the Christmas story? For me it was while watching “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” I don’t remember exactly how old I was, and I know it wasn’t the first time I had seen that cartoon, but this time when Linus recited from Luke Ch. 2, something resonated in me. I remember hearing and thinking how “real” this all sounded and a quiet calm shook my soul that night.
This past Sunday we looked at this chapter and how if we’re not careful we will overlook the miraculous hand of God and only see the mundane. Think about it. The only spectacular and extraordinary thing that takes place in these first verses is when the angels appear to the shepherds (not to Joseph or Mary) and when they do, they don’t say, “Look at us! We’re a sign from God!” Instead, they say “This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Hmmm, let’s read that again. “You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Yep, that’s it, that’s your sign.

God seems to be pushing the story into the most raw and unimpressive places; shepherds in a field, a stable next to an inn, a baby wrapped in cloths lying in a feeding trough. Can you get more commonplace? God not only is pushing out every stereotype of what a King is thought to be, but He is also revealing them to the strangest of people. Like the shepherds, who were serious outcasts at the time (they smelled pretty bad), but who got a serious upgrade in status after this event. Let’s face it, if it were not for this story, I doubt we would ever put little figurines of shepherds all over our homes. Then there are the Magi, or sorcerers, men involved with astrology who are looking for the wrong god and who somehow find the true One. It’s as if God is in the glories of heaven and saying, “I need to make sure that those who are the lowest and farthest away from Me can see and understand what I am doing, because if I start there, then Christ can be known by everyone.
Now a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger is not a sign at all, unless it is a Savior being born for us, unless it is Christ, the Lord. Then that would be a sign indeed.

Merry Christmas

This is an actual photo of an "ordinary" snowflake
that fell on a hat. Pretty extraordinary, don't you think?
Photo taken by Sherri Youngward