"And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks by night." Luke 2:8
The sheep were ordinary. Some fat. Some scrawny. Some with barrel bellies. Some with twig legs. Common animals. No fleece made of gold. No history makers. No blue-ribbon winners. They were simply sheep - lumpy, sleeping silhouettes on a hillside.
And the shepherds. Peasants they were. Probably wearing all the clothes they owned. Smelling like sheep and looking just as woolly. They were conscientious, willing to spend the night with their flocks. But you won't find their staffs in a museum nor their writings in a library. No one asked their opinion on social justice or the application of the Torah. They were nameless and simple.
Ordinary sheep. Ordinary shepherds on an ordinary night. And were it not for a God who loves to hook an "extra" on the front of the ordinary, the night would have gone unnoticed. The sheep would have been forgotten, and the shepherds would have slept the night away.
But God dances amidst the common. And that night He did a waltz.
The black sky exploded with brightness. Trees that had been shadows jumped into clarity. Sheep that had been silent became a chorus of curiosity. One minute the shepherds were sound asleep, the next they were rubbing their eyes and staring into the face of angels.
Suddenly the ordinary became extraordinary. Sometimes God's most powerful tools are the simplest.
Do your days feel ordinary? Common? Simple? Give them to God. He does some of His most awesome miracles with the ordinary.
[thoughts from Max Lucado, The Applause of Heaven]
No comments:
Post a Comment