Luke 1:26-27
Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee, called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.
Ordinary. No one aspires to be ordinary. It’s just not what we’re all shooting for, right? I mean, what if I wished you an “Ordinary Christmas” or sang “Ordinary Birthday to You!” on your special day?
In the early years of my marriage after dressing to head out the door with my husband Kurt, I would ask him a dangerous question: “Honey, how does this look?” Back then he was young and green and didn’t know any better and so he would answer honestly. He would say, “It looks fine.”
Fine – really?! I don’t want to look fine. Fine is NOT what I had in mind. That’s so ordinary! When I chose my outfit, fixed my hair and applied my makeup, I wasn’t trying for fine. Ravishing, maybe. Lovely, possibly. But not old, ordinary fine.
After almost 20 years of marriage, I’ve just about got him trained. He realizes that when describing a woman’s appearance, fine is a four letter word. Why? Because nobody wants to be ordinary.
That’s just where the problem begins, however, because believe it or not, the God of the Universe is interested in ordinary. Go figure. You and I may not be wild about ordinary, but God is. He loves ordinary people.
When it came time to send His one and only Son into the world, He didn’t choose a royal princess seated on an elaborate throne in an ornate palace somewhere. No, He sent his messenger to a very ordinary place (Nazareth), to interrupt a very ordinary young lady living her very ordinary life. Ordinary Mary.
Even her name was ordinary. Think about it. The Bible is full of crazy, wild, unique names – Jehoshaphat, Nebuchadnezzar, Abimelech and so on. Mary isn’t one of them. Marys come in multiples. Mary Magdalene. Mary and Martha. Mary the mother of Mark. Oridinary Mary.
When the angel showed up Mary was just doing the next ordinary thing. She was engaged. She was planning a wedding. That’s what young women her age did. You got married, settled down, started a family.
Granted, she was a virgin, which by today’s standards makes her anything but ordinary. In Mary’s day, everybody was doing it – virginity that is. There was this minor deterrent to help curb hormones. They called it stoning. So, to be a virgin engaged to be married was – you guessed it – ordinary.
Jewish tradition has it that Gabriel found Mary by the town well. Well of course he did. That’s where all the women went. It was their job to draw water because water was necessary for all those ordinary, daily tasks that women do. It would be like having an angel show up in your laundry room. Ordinary Mary from ordinary Nazareth just going about an ordinary day’s work.
Do you ever feel too ordinary to really matter to God? Like Moses and Joshua and Daniel and Esther, they were really cool people. Certainly God would speak to them. Understandably He would use them in powerful ways, but me. Come on. Really? An ordinary housewife in my bathrobe just trying to get the kids out the door on time for school? An ordinary businessman working to keep the boss happy, turn in my reports and hang on to my job in a bad economy? An ordinary office worker punching the time clock? An ordinary student pushing through my crowded high school hallways. I’m a nobody. God can’t use me. I can’t know Him that way, right?
So you would think. Turns out, “God is not looking for great people but for people who will prove the greatness of God (AB Simpson).” In reality, the more ordinary you and I are, the more God can and will use us. Because if I’m ordinary He gets to be extraordinary in and through me.
Mary was ordinary but she discovered that God is personal and He’s no respecter of persons. Anyone, and I do mean anyone, can be in relationship with Him if they are willing. Out of all the women in the world God sent Gabriel to Mary. She was known by Him. She was loved by Him. And so are you. That’s the unbelievable message of Christmas!
Here’s the question: just how ordinary are you willing to be? You want to keep trying to be something on your own or are you willing, like Mary, to see what God can do with ole’, ordinary you?
To be continued . . .
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