December 11, 2008

Christmas in the Ordinary

Christmas is almost here. We’re reminded of this as we drive through communities and see the lights and decorations. Sometimes you drive through the neighborhoods where every house is perfectly decorated. They look perfect. My instincts tell me that this is the way a house should be decorated for Christmas. I can even imagine Chevy Chase dramatically plugging them in on the front lawn.

Have you noticed how easy it is to find the houses where the parents let the children decorate? You’ll see a yard with lots of blow-up Santas and snowmen. Then you’ll see a wayward strand of lights stretching from the mailbox, looping over a low-lying tree branch, dipping lazily across the lawn, and making a random solo climb up the front porch rail. It cracks me up. But for the kids, it’s beautiful. What we see as gaudy, children see as a work of art. What a different perspective!

I wonder what the shepherds thought as they went to worship a king and found an old dusty stable. Their instincts told them they were in the wrong place. This baby in a feed trough could not be a king.

This unremarkable setting was God’s chosen location to make His entrance into the world. God chose the mundane. That’s not how we would have done it. No parades. No cathedrals. No palaces. No, God took the ordinary and made it holy. What a different perspective!

This is an excerpt from a monthly letter that I write for Lifetime Guarantee Ministries. Continue reading at Lifetime.org