The Ordinary and the Obedient

As part of the silent retreat I attended last Friday, we looked at the different journeys of people involved in the Christmas narrative. At one station we looked at Mary and Joseph’s travel to Bethlehem for the census, to Jerusalem to dedicate Jesus, and to Egypt as they fled Herod.

I thought about how Mary and Joseph’s travel to Bethlehem was unexpected, but ordinary (Luke 2:1-5). Everyone was being displaced by the census. There were tons of people traveling back to their hometowns to be counted. This is why there was no room in the inn. This call to return was not unique to Mary and Joseph, although it did bring about the fulfillment of Scripture.

When Mary and Joseph traveled to Jerusalem to dedicate Jesus, it was an act of obedience (Luke 2:21-24). They were fulfilling the Law God had given to the people through Moses. They, like so many other Jews, offered the necessary sacrifices for their firstborn son.

However, the escape to Egypt was quite extraordinary (Matthew 2:13-18). Joseph was warned in a dream. Jesus was spared from the massacre that took place in Bethlehem. God intervened in a powerful way to deliver the family.

The ordinary, the obedient, and the extraordinary. Sometimes I think the life of Jesus and those around him was lived out only in the extraordinary. It was a good reminder that much of life is lived in the ordinary and the obedient. There is ordinary life to live for all of us. There is wealth for us to live out in obedience from God’s Word. Just living in the ordinary and the obedient consumes all parts of our lives. Yet, in a rare moment, the extraordinary takes place. God steps into the story in a way only He can. So I live gratefully in the ordinary and the obedient and keep watch for the extraordinary.