Advent Day 19

"And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them . . . "

    ~Luke 2:6-9a

The birth of Jesus doesn't seem miraculous, and yet it was perfectly orchestrated by God. We can struggle to see God in the medical, the scientific, the ordinary systems of our world, but He is always breathing His life into them. Giving us the reminders we need, performing His will in His time, or answering our prayers through systems already laid out. I've seen many more people come back from a medical death sentence through the explainable than through the unexplainable, but is someone surviving a surgery doctors were sure would kill him any less miraculous because we see no evidence of our systems being interrupted? 

God uses tangible things to His ends. The birth of Jesus would have felt ordinary if not for the prophecies in the Old Testament. It probably even felt like a bad time to give birth: away from home, the guest room already filled, having to travel with a newborn. But Jesus was to be born in Bethlehem. God brought them there through the census, but His timing is why Mary went into labor while they were there even if He worked within the physical realm to accomplish His purposes. 

And despite what seemed like unideal circumstances, Mary worked with what was before her. She laid her baby in a manger. She didn't get hung up on the resources she expected to have at home. God always provides, but we don't always see His provision because it doesn't match our expectations. Mary and God may very likely have had different ideas of what Jesus's birth would look like. What mother imagines lying her baby in a feeding trough? But this beginning is essential to the gospel message. God humbled Himself into becoming man, and the circumstances of His birth reflect the humility He was born into.

These humble beginnings are reflected too in Christ's first visitors, chosen by God to bear witness to the events which had taken place.  

The shepherds were not the kings and queens we'd expect to bow before the King of Kings but were of a low social status. And yet their position as shepherds is one Christ so often identifies with. He is the Good Shepherd, looking after his flock, finding lost sheep, and teaching them His voice. He uplifts the role of a shepherd throughout His ministry by making us His flock, but from the very beginning He honors shepherds by inviting them to be His witnesses.

Like with Zechariah, the angel appeared to the shepherds in their daily circumstances. The shepherds were faithful in the ordinary, which God used for the special, the memorable, and the extraordinary. It's easy to become dissatisfied or unmotivated with the mundane, the practical, the patterns of every day life, but it's in that very place that an angel appears to the shepherds. Only in their faithfulness to their daily responsibilities and callings are they positioned to hear the good news. And while we might not expect a heavenly host to appear at our job (though I'm sure neither did those shepherds), God continually blesses us in the daily rhythms of our lives. Whether by becoming a testimony to those around us or by seeing God in all the moments we take for granted, when we live like we believe in God's supernatural presence within the ordinary, we tend to notice Him more in those places than we would otherwise.