Just an Ordinary Day

It was an ordinary day like any other day. Yet, God knew that it would be a day to remember.

The birth of the incarnate Christ was spectacular yet ordinary, kingly yet earthy. God had chosen to send His gift of love through the expression of a woman’s womb instead of on clouds of glory or as a conquering King.

Yet, I think it’s quite spectacular that God would robe himself with flesh and become a babe growing in a young virgin’s womb.

The actual birth was nothing special. There was no birthing room with reporters waiting outside and family pacing the floor. It was just Joseph, Mary and maybe a midwife in a stinky stable filled with animals and hay. What a way to welcome the hope of the nations, the light of the world, the Prince of Peace.

Christ’s birth was spectacular in that it was accompanied by an angel choir and the birth announcement by Gabriel himself. For the Shepherds, it was an ordinary night of watching their sheep. But they were suddenly jolted out of the ordinary into the extraordinary. They witnessed the terrifying sight of the Angel of the Lord with the glory of the Lord shining around them. He told them not to be afraid but it was a little late cause suddenly a heavenly host of angels appeared singing “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace and goodwill to all men.”

Every day begins as an ordinary day. But every day holds the potential for the extraordinary as we look for opportunities to allow the glory of the Lord to shine through us – to pierce the darkness of someone’s ordinary, drab existence. Just as God chose Mary as the conduit for the birth of the Christ child, He chooses us to birth His presence into our world.

The Shepherds believed the report of Gabriel and said, “Let us go to Bethlehem to see this thing.” Will you, like the shepherds, take action to make this ordinary day a day to remember?