It Happens in the Ordinary

   As I read again the Christmas Story in Luke 2, the extraordinary event of the angels appearing to the shepherds catches my thoughts, and I see anew the wonder and excitement those men must have felt on the night so long ago. How could they ever be the same? Were they?

   They were the very definition of "ordinary people".

   They probably even talked to the sheep. I wonder if they told those animals all about what they found in the town of Bethlehem.

   When I think about how God, through his angels, broke into their lives that night, I think, "I wish He would do that for me, right now, tonight, tomorrow, sometime this Season".

   My thoughts kind of drift along this morning as I have time in this quiet spot, and I remember a story.

   It is a short story by Leo Tolstoy called The Shoemaker's Christmas, and you can read it here:

   http://access2ministry.blogspot.com/2010/12/shoemakers-christmas.html

   The man had a dream that the Savior would visit him the next day, and he was thrilled at the prospect of a grand extraordinary event happening in his humble shop.

   But, alas, the only folks he saw on the street out his little window were ordinary. So he just saw their needs and invited them to enter and rest and get warm, while he continued to wait for his Special Guest to come by.

   You know the end. He was disappointed when his dream was not realized in the way he visualized it, but, as he sat in that empty room, his mind was awakened with the vision of the ordinary people he had ministered to that day.

   And then the familiar words:

"At last, out of the silence, Father Martin heard again the gentle voice repeating the old familiar words. “Whosoever shall receive one such in My name, receiveth Me…for I was an hungered, and ye gave Me meat; I was athirst, and ye gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took Me in…verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, ye have done it unto Me.”

   Isn't it true for us as well? We look for a great event that we can proudly tell to everyone, one that has entered our lives in a very special and extraordinary way.

   But aren't we called to live our lives where we are placed? To serve people in the ordinary paths that we walk, and to be the hands and feet of Christ where we are and when He calls.

   It may be our neighbors, our friends, those at our church or at our work.

   It may the poor, the marginalized.

   It may be to give our money to those who minister in His Name all around the world.

   But it may be to just love those He has placed in our care, and to share with those who pass at our door.

   The world may call it "ordinary", but it is much more than that.

   And the Angels sing for us and for those we serve.

   We just need to see them, really see them as God does.

   He sees no "ordinary" people…

   There is no "ordinary" Day...