While many of us may not like the secular Christmas music that begins playing – sometimes even before Thanksgiving, it is still a reminder that the season is shifting from Turkey, pilgrims and thanksgiving to stars, stables and the Savior. And even within the secular playlists, we can still hear the classic Christmas songs that actually do celebrate the Savior’s lowly birth!
The other day I was considering that when we only look for the work of God only in the extraordinary, we will often fail to see the work of God in the ordinary. And this reminded me of my favorite Owens Community College staff member – the photography lab instructor. While I can’t remember his exact words, I will never forget the gist of what he told me. He shared that what makes a great photographer is not that they take photos of amazing things, but that they take amazing photos of ordinary things. This forces the viewer to pause and reflect on something from a perspective that they wouldn’t commonly have. In other words, it forces a person to look at the ordinary from an extraordinary angle and appreciate that object’s “hidden” beauty.
Similarly, as Christians, we have the opportunity during Advent to stop and remember the extraordinary work of God in the everyday ordinary. Yesterday I asked my children what were some ordinary things about the birth of Jesus. One of them said, “He was born from a woman.” I loved her answer, you can’t get more ordinary than a woman giving birth. It is SO ordinary and yet when we stop to consider, we actually see in this ordinary event the extraordinary – the work of God! A virgin, overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, the baby Jesus a miracle being formed in her womb and fully God and fully man, Jesus being born. In this ordinary event we see the extraordinary work of God.
Similarly, we should look for the work of God in the ordinary events of our lives too. And this brings me to the very ordinary fact of people coming to a Christmas concert at Christmas time. That is quiet ordinary. And yet in that ordinary event, an extraordinary mini-miracle happened, a friend from Afghan came by themselves and heard about the miracle of Jesus. Of course, in our day and age, we can dismiss the extraordinary and explain it away in a thousand different ways. As Christians, we must never forget that we live in God’s world and that people are image bearers of God and that we were made for another world. God is actively at work to bring His children from every corner of the earth to Himself.
Dear friends, I encourage you this Advent to pause and look around you with a Biblical worldview and see the extraordinary work of God in the everyday ordinary. May such seeing overflow in much praising and thanks to God.
Turners at WFI 