7:00 p.m.
As my three year old hovered about me, on a very regular, ordinary day while I was getting ready in the morning. She leaned over and smelled me...thankfully I just taken a shower. She leaned in and said, “Mommy, you smell good, you smell like GLITTER.”
Why thank you! I smelled like glitter. No one has ever said that to me before. But for a three year old, glitter is one of the best things out there. It is shiny and sparkly. Fairies use glitter to make you fly. Unicorns dance in glitter. Glitter transforms anything from ordinary to extraordinary.
It was a totally unexpected beginning to my day that put a sparkle in my step all day. It took mundane, ordinary moment and made it extraordinary.
What moments have happened for you that have caused you to think….well, that was unexpected and marvelous. A job offer? A proposal? A compliment? Rare and precious moments that transform ordinary into extraordinary.….
The original Christmas, where it all began, started with an ordinary moment, an ordinary life, that suddenly transitioned into the extraordinary. A moment that altered the course of a day. Of a life. It altered the course of history.
Unexpectedly, a messenger from heaven, a supernatural warrior, a hulking ripped glowing champion of Heaven, named Gabriel, interrupted an ordinary day of a mortal. An unsuspecting young Jewish woman named Mary.
She woke up on an regular day. Brushed her teeth, combed her hair, rode her camel to Starbucks.
But on this particular day. Heaven had a message for Mary. God had a job for her.
But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God.
…..don’t be afraid. Can I be terrified? Overwhelmed? Confused? Amazed? Shocked? What is going on?
The Creator of the Universe knew who Mary was... and also who he wanted her to become. She had been chosen to by the Almighty.
31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end. Luke 1:30-33
But Mary was confused because she had never been with a man and she wondered how this was even possible?
35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.
Wait, wait...what? You can’t unhear that. Is it ok to ask an angel to repeat himself?….Talk about changing your day. Changing your plans. Changing your life.
God spoke to Mary and gave her a glimpse of a very different future then I’m sure she had ever imagined for herself.
A simple peasant girl would now be the mother of a King. She would raise the Son of God. In one profound moment God reoriented Mary’s purpose, focus, and direction for her own personal plan’s for her life.
A young Jewish woman’s greatest aspirations were to be married, have children, live in her community and honor God.
But this was a little different...
Mary would still get married and have children and live in her community, but her focus was now to deliver a baby that would one day deliver her and raise a son that one day would raise from the dead. Talk about parental pressure. What support group does the mother of God join?
God completely disrupted her life and she was okay with it. She even agreed. Without argument. This is her response:
38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.
With a humble heart of trust, she was willing to adjust her life for God’s bigger purpose.
Why did God chose Mary?
She may have been young, inexperienced, and naive, but there was a strength in her humility. With a humble heart of trust, she was willing to adjust.
So this Christmas Season, what do you think would happen if we too were, like Mary, walked humbly, trusting that God knows better for our lives than we do?
Sometimes humble people get a bad rap for being passive, submissive, insecure or even boring.
Maybe it is just the opposite. Humble people are confident, competent, and strong. Instead of thinking less of themselves, they just think of themselves less.
Mary had no glitter or fairies or unicorns to write her story. She had God to carry her. She leaned in to him to carry her as she carried His Son. She thought of herself less and thought everything about what God was doing through her.
Humble beginnings. Humble Heart. Strong woman.
Humble people listen. Mary listened to God’s call on her life and responded: With a humble heart of trust, I am ready to adjust.
Later Scripture even records her bursting into song! She could have thrown herself a really good pity-party. But her humility would not let her focus on herself, God had a job for her to do.
You never know when God may reveal himself in an unexpected way to bring the extraordinary into your life. Is your heart and life positioned with humility to be ready to hear from God?
Glitter is magical. But the story of Christmas is not magic. It is so powerful because it is true.
May you too dare to walk with a humble heart of trust so that when God turns your ordinary into extraordinary, you are read to adjust.
