It Starts in a Manger

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.
Luke 2:15-16 (NIV) 

This passage teaches us that we must pay attention to what God lets emerge from the ordinary in our lives.

The prophets of ancient times said that the child who would be born as Messiah would be:

• Our king forever, reigning on David’s throne
• Wonderful Counselor
• Mighty God
• Eternal Father
• And the government shall rest upon His shoulders!

If you are looking for a man under that description, you don’t go looking in mangers, right?

Jesus shows up in the most ordinary way we might imagine. He shows up in a manger. The shepherds arrive at the manger, and there is Jesus wrapped in cloth—so ordinary that it ought to teach you that you cannot ignore what God is letting emerge from the ordinary in your life.

God lets power emerge from ordinary people, ordinary places, ordinary things, movements, and encounters. Do you know how much God wants to use your ordinary life to reveal Him, to announce Him, to extend Him, to prove Him, to praise Him, to celebrate Him, to adore Him, to testify about Him? Stop counting yourself out!

Stop chasing the extraordinary, the cataclysmic, and the monumental, and learn how to nurture the intimacy of your relationship with God based on the ordinary things. Give attention to what God is letting emerge from the ordinary in life, but additionally accept that maybe life is not about climbing, but descending. Jesus starts His earthly life in a manger and then descends to a grave. 

Jesus spends His earthly ministry emptying Himself, becoming as all humans are. He who knew no sin yet was tempted in every way just like we are, He submits to and obeys God. Hebrews 4:15 says that we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but we have a high priest who was like us in every way; He experienced every temptation and never sinned. This is why Jesus teaches that if we want to follow Him, we have to give up our lives.

God can use the ordinary to do extraordinary things.