Ordinary Things

Hanging of the Greens is over, the Christmas play is over, and now we're back to ordinary things. Well, ordinary for Christmastime, I suppose, but ordinary nonetheless. I'd wager most of us are tired -- we've had a long couple of weeks -- and we're grateful for the return to routine.

There is a great beauty in the ordinary. Think of it like food: no one could stomach only cake 24/7 or a steady diet of only extremely spicy foods. They're nice for a treat, to be sure, but they would become problematic if they were everyday, commonplace things. The same goes for much of life, I feel. We find comfort in our own homes, in our own beds, surrounded by our own things. Ordinary brings peace and beauty of a sort we take for granted too often.

I think God feels that way, too. The Bible is full of ordinary people, ordinary places, and ordinary things God used to do extraordinary deeds. Perhaps Christmas is the perfect time to reflect on this, for it's a shining example of the beauty of the common. Jesus didn't come as a flash of lightning; he came as a human baby. He didn't choose earthly parents from among the elite; he chose a plain carpenter and his betrothed wife. He didn't offer to save us through extreme rituals or grandiose buildings; he saved us through a public execution that spilled his blood for you and for me.

As we celebrate the miracle of the Nativity, take time to celebrate just how ordinary it was. Then rejoice at how God came to us in order to bring us to Him -- and that's not ordinary at all!