Just Living Life

“In the same region, shepherds were staying out in the fields and keeping watch at night over their flock.” Luke 2:8 CSB

I have been rereading the Christmas story over the past few weeks as I have been getting ready for Sunday morning and as a reminder to my own heart and soul. There have been a number of thoughts that have stood out to me . The main theme this year for me has been the fact that God the Father sent Jesus into an ordinary world to everyday, ordinary, regular people. There really wasn’t anything special about his coming except maybe how humble it was. Yes, it was announced by angels, but they announced it to some of the lowest people on the social scale of the day, the shepherds. Mary and Joseph were everyday people; they were forced like everyone else to travel to their birth place for a census, to stay wherever they could find a place and be counted like everyone else.
The verse I had you read at the beginning of the blog doesn’t seem like much of a thought, but in reality it is loaded with meaning. It is a statement that leads us straight to the sovereignty of God. Think of this, while an ordinary couple arrived at an ordinary town there were ordinary shepherds doing ordinary work looking after ordinary sheep, and into both of those ordinary situations the glory of God arrived. For the couple a baby was born who was God in human form. For the shepherds a heavenly message arrived brought by heavenly hosts. Both sets of people were simply living ordinary lives when God stepped in and changed them forever.
Now, you may be asking why does that matter for us right now? It matters because God has never stopped caring for and stepping into the lives of ordinary people. The coming of Jesus as a baby and then his death, burial and resurrection made it possible for all people to be changed forever. His coming made a way for us to be right with God and to be granted access to him for eternity. It is by repenting of our sin and accepting his gift of forgiveness that we are made right with him.
Have you allow Jesus to change your ordinary life?

-Pastor Tim