The extraordinary God of the ordinary
God obviously didn’t employ a PR consultant when he was planning the first Christmas. I mean, where were the journalists, the cameras, the lights and the fireworks? No-one posted anything on Facebook; there were no tweets, and not a flicker on Instagram. Yes, I know that none of those things had been invented in the first century, but it helps to make the point. God could have arranged the most spectactular show on earth – and he will do when his Son returns to judge the world – but at his first coming he totally bypassed the powers-that-be. The great ones of the day – Caesar, Herod and the like – knew nothing of this great event. Instead, the first to know were a virgin and her fiancé, then shepherds in the fields, and later unknown ‘Magi’ from a very long way away.
It was all very ordinary, and at the same time utterly extraordinary. After all, this child was the eternal Word become flesh, God with us, who would reign for ever, save his people from their sins, and bring peace with God – and those are just the headlines. The thing is, we don’t need to be extraordinary for God to bother with us. We only need to be human, and God will be interested in us, very interested indeed. Mary speaks for every one of us when she says that “[God my Saviour] has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.” What we mustn’t do is miss the ordinary in the extraordinary – or the extraordinary in the ordinary… I wish you an (extra)ordinary Christmas.