Ordinary Obedience
We make the heroes of stories invincible and the enemies super villains. The reality is most of us wake up each day with our intentions, our plans, our challenges, expecting life to turn out one way but experiencing something entirely different. I’ve been captivated with exploring the humanity and ordinariness of the overly familiar Christmas nativity characters. Of all years, I can relate to unexpected twists and turns. This is the year.
The Time Draws Near
The child growing within her was moving about. Pains of childbirth were starting to grow. Mary knew the time was drawing near. Between contractions, as they made their way to Bethlehem for the census, her mind wandered back to that day. The moment before The Visitor appeared. The moment before she experienced morning sickness and back pains. The moment before enthusiasm and trepidation simultaneously overflowed her being.
A timely sharp cramping brought her back to the dusty road she was waiting on while Joseph checked with yet another boarder. Grateful to have a reprieve from walking, Mary’s body tensed with pain, then she took a moment to breathe as the pain subsided.
With a brisk pace, Joseph rushes towards Mary, now doubled up in anguish. He’s relieved to have a place to go, although it is not at all ideal. Before he can inform Mary of his news, she interrupts his thoughts.
“Joseph, they are coming more frequently. Where will we stay? What will we do?” Her doe eyes gazed up at him, anticipating an answer she couldn’t think of right now.
The interruption jolted his train of thought away from the urgent need and wandered back. His mind flashes to his own angelic visitation. In the short nine months, he has seemingly lived years since that fateful day. He remembers briefly the beautiful celebration of a wedding he desired altered into a dutiful response to the call of God. Sometimes he wonders, ‘Why me?‘
Mary’s grasp on his arm tightens as another pain starts to come upon her body. Joseph takes her by the arm and leads her to a small stable, his arrangement with a local, overworked innkeeper. He’s grateful for the pity the man took on their situation. Joseph rushes past the cows to make a straw bed for Mary.
It’s getting dark now. The time is coming.
Ordinary Obedience
Mary was simply an ordinary girl, thirteen and most likely in the throes of puberty when she said yes to God.
Joseph was an ordinary man who acted in obedience, marrying a woman carrying a child he was not the father of.
The innkeepers of Bethlehem were overrun due to a government ordinance beyond their control. The bustle of travelers in the town was tired from their own travels and didn’t maliciously hog all the rooms.
The shepherds were of the most ordinary people, just showing up to do the work before them.
The wise men, their status of noblemen aside, were even ordinary in their own right, playing the role of traveling businessmen, sent on a business trip on behalf of their boss.
Even the supervillain of the story, King Herod, may have had his own insecurities, fears, and traumas which caused his overreach of power to take the lives of innocent baby boys.
Lens of the Ordinary
As we read through the Christmas story once more in the next day or two, I encourage all of us to look through the lens of the ordinary. You can find the Christmas story text in the first 2 chapters in the gospel of Matthew or the first 2 chapters in the gospel of Luke.
Can I see the humanity in each of the players?
Do I feel the turmoil and the emotion?
How would I have acted if I were in that circumstance?
As we ponder these questions together, may we all grow deeper in our understanding that Biblical application of scripture is not being blessed with a choir of angels or an immaculate conception, rather in the day-to-day obedience of God’s will in the midst of our ordinary lives.
Merry Christmas friends. I am glad we are walking our journey together.
If you found value in this post, you may also enjoy this post about the clues leading up to the birth of Christ.
