Ordinary Matters

Excerpted from god’s story, your story by Max Lucado

Luke 1:26  "I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her. (v.38)

The [Christmas] story drips with normalcy. This isn’t Queen Mary or King Joseph. The couple doesn’t caravan into Bethlehem with camels, servants, purple banners, and dancers.

Mary and Joseph have no tax exemption or political connection.

They have the clout of a migrant worker and the net worth of a minimum wage earner.

Not subjects for a PBS documentary. Not candidates for welfare either. Their life is difficult but not destitute. Joseph has the means to pay taxes. They inhabit the populous world between royalty and rubes.

Norm and Norma from Normal, Ohio, plodding into ho-hum Bethlehem in the middle of the night. No one notices them.

No one looks twice in their direction. The innkeeper won’t even clean out a corner in the attic. Trumpets don’t blast; bells don’t sound; angels don’t toss confetti. Aren’t we glad they didn’t?

What if Joseph and Mary had shown up in furs with a chauffeur, bling-blinged and high-muckety-mucked? And what if God had decked out Bethlehem like Hollywood on Oscar night: red carpet, flashing lights, with angels interviewing the royal couple?

“Mary, Mary, you look simply divine.”

Had Jesus come with such whoop-de-do, we would have read the story and thought, My, look how Jesus entered their world.

But since he didn’t, we can read the story and dream. My, might Jesus be born in my world? My everyday world?

Isn’t that what you indwell? Not a holiday world. Or a red-letter-day world. No, you live an everyday life. You have bills to pay, beds to make, and grass to cut. Your face won’t grace any magazine covers, and you aren’t expecting a call from the White House. Congratulations. You qualify for a modern-day Christmas story. God enters the world through folks like you and comes on days like today.