God Among the Ordinary

By Jeff Cranston

At one place and time, a carpenter showed up as a baby. Only a handful of people really knew who He was. The angel armies knew and sang to some shepherds their songs about a majestic One—a Savior, the chosen One, the long-awaited One: Jesus.

His arrival was “good news of great joy for all the people.” Where would the shepherds find this glorious one? In a palace? A temple? A concert hall with an orchestra perhaps? No. One angel gave the astonishing news: “You will find a baby wrapped in a blanket of sorts and lying in a feeding trough.”

Who would expect to find a heavenly King in such a setting? Usually He lived among angels; now among cattle. What a surprising place to find God. The One who made the Universe placed Himself in the inexperienced hands of a teenage mom and the rough hands of another carpenter: Mary and Joseph. God among the ordinary.

One of the puzzles of Christmas is why God did it that way. Why not make the angelic sound and light show a global event? Isn’t that what you or I would’ve done? Could it be that God did it that way for at least two reasons?

First, He did it that way because He wants us to know that He—God—is accessible to every one of us. Especially to the least and lowest of us. God has made Himself available—in the person of Jesus Christ—to you and to me so we can all enjoy the beauty of His free gift of eternal life.

A second reason for God coming in human flesh as He did is that Jesus doesn’t impose Himself on us. Instead, He invites us to enter into relationship with Him. The shepherds heard the angel’s message, sought the Christ-child and found Him. God invites us to seek Him as well.       

And because He invites us into relationship with Him, we know that this is because He loves us. That’s why He came for you. How much does God love you? Jesus answers that question by again reminding us of a shepherd. He said, “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep” (John 10:11, NASB).

Now you may think of yourself as a not very religious person. You should know Jesus cares about you, too. He especially cares about you. In fact, Jesus actually said, when He was talking about Himself as the Good Shepherd, “I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd” (John 10:16, NASB).

Maybe you're one of those sheep who says, "You know, I've been to church a few times. I kind of don't like it. I don't think I belong in that pen." I will tell you a secret. Sometimes I kind of don't like it either, and I work at a church! But Jesus isn’t calling us to a church or to a religion—He is calling us to a relationship with Him.

You see, Jesus originally came to the people of Israel. They rightly believed themselves to be God's chosen people. But He said, "I have other sheep: non-Jewish people, sinners, atheists, skeptics, outsiders, rebels, scoffers, mockers." He came for us. We are sinners. We need a Savior. That’s Him -- and He substituted His life for yours and mine.

In a world skidding out of control, where weapons of war are booming, where sexuality is becoming de-sacralized, where homes are being attacked, where we search and long for something or someone to provide for us the answers, the Lord Jesus stands above it all, and says to you and to me, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28, NASB).

And He says to you and to me, “The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who rejects the Son will not see life; instead, the wrath of God remains on him” (John 3:36, CSB).

It was into our world, about 2,000 years ago, that God positioned Himself near the underbelly of a region called Judea, in a little bitty village called Bethlehem. And now there stands the gigantic figure of One Person, Jesus, of Whom, by Whom, in Whom, and through Whom alone mankind may still have peace. He is the Lord I present to you today. May you know Him, and He you.

There was a place. There was a time. There was a carpenter. There was a need. There was an exquisitely, beautiful fulfillment of that need. This Christmas will you put Jesus front and center of your life?

Jeff Cranston is lead pastor of LowCountry Community Church in Bluffton, S.C.

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