#47 – Advent 4 – Contentment with who you are

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One of the peculiarities of the Christmas story is the cast of characters. 

Joseph, who we are introduced to only because he is engaged to Mary. Otherwise, he seems to be a manual labourer from a small town in rural Palestine.

Mary, a teenage girl, who seems to have nothing significant about her before the story picks up.

Some farmworkers, who drew the short straw and had to work the night shift watching over grazing sheep.

The Magi / Wise Men are the only ones in the nativity story that are educated (scientists -which in that day included astrology) with respectable jobs (probably trusted advisors to the King they served). However, they likely don’t come for at least 40 days (and some say up to 2 years) later. 

We need to re-examine the nativity scene we think we know so well.

It’s full of poor, uneducated, rural, young.

So what?

The arrival of Jesus was a surprise to every human on earth (except Mary and Joseph, and a few others close to them)

But who played a role in that scene – who was present?

God plucked shepherds out of obscurity and they became people who have been portrayed in art more than any king or emperor.

There was Joseph who – through no doing of his own – became a key player in the story of God coming to earth. He was busy working as a carpenter, thinking about getting married and starting a family. Suddenly his name is coupled to the event that literally changed human history.

There is a young, unwed, pregnant girl. Whose identity is now synonymous with yielding faith, and whose name millions of Catholics and others recite every day of the year for the past several millennia.

Why?

What did these people do to become key players in God’s movement of history?

Nothing.

They were just living their lives, and they were obedient when called.

That for me is the Contentment of Advent.

We don’t have to struggle to be used by God.

We don’t have to hustle our way into his plan

We don’t have to figure out how to be a part of his movement. 

He will use us.
As we are.
Where we are.
Who we are.

We just – like Mary, Joseph, the shepherds – have to be willing to 

listen
and 
respond.


DO THIS

What are you trying to do – to become – to get – to accomplish —SO THAT you may be used of God?

Think about where you are right now. How much more influence you have than the shepherds. How much more education, and resources than Joseph. How much more of the story you know than Mary.

What can you do RIGHT NOW – TODAY – to respond to God’s call.

What can you do NOW – to play your part in His story?


PRAY THIS

Emmanuel,
God with us,
I don’t understand why you choose to work through the people you do.
I don’t even know why you want to include me,
or how.
But I trust that you do.
Give me ears to hear what you are calling me to,
and eyes to see the needs,
that are right around me,
right where I am
right now.
Exactly as I am.

I trust that your story is big enough to include even people like
Mary, and Joseph, and the shepherds,
and me.

Amen