BACK TO THE ORDINARY

Matthew 2:19-23

Lord Jesus,

The Christmas season has been incredibly busy.  Baking, cooking, parties, dinners, programs, travel, family, and friends have crowded my life.  Whew!  I’m glad it’s over!  Now it’s back to the ordinary.  Does life every settle down?

After Your miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit in Your mother’s womb, angelic confirmations, an extraordinary birth in a sheep cave, angelic announcements, shepherds congratulatory worship, Magi following a star for over 500 miles to meet You–an infant King, and an emergency flight into another country to escape an insane Herod bent on baby killing, who would expect Your life to be ordinary?  Your start in life was anything but ordinary!

Then the angel told Mary and Joseph that it was safe to take You back to Your homeland.  Galilee made the most sense.  Nazareth was home.  So, it was back to the ordinary.  But Nazareth was anything but ordinary in so many ways.  International caravan routes lay nearly at Your childhood feet.  The Mediterranean was visible to the west from lofty crests in the Galilee.

Then there were the people... the talk.  For your parents, Mary and Joseph, Nazareth meant a return to the ordinary cruelty of gossip, questions about their integrity, and suspicious glances at You.  Back to the ordinary.

You learned the trade of Your earthly father, Joseph, in his carpenter shop.  As a toddler, You milled about in the dust and shavings until Your mother, Mary, concerned that You were getting filthy, called You out of there.  As a boy, You began with small projects, shaping blocks, sticks, perhaps a wooden Roman sword.  What was the first piece of furniture You made?  How many attempts at making a sturdy, comfortable yoke for oxen did it take You before You learned to make easy fitting yokes You must have been known for?  Back to the ordinary.

What were those years between Egypt and Nazareth like for You?  From infancy and a toddler’s life in Egypt to manhood and ministry at age 30, Your Word is largely silent.  I see only one glimpse of You at age 12 in the temple questioning the lawyers and doctors at Father’s House.  Other than that snapshot, silence.  Back to the ordinary.

So, here I go.  I am headed back to the ordinary pace of life.  Walk with me in my ordinary journey. Lead me.  Direct me.  May the beauty of Christ that was crafted through the ordinary events of a carpenter’s shop in Nazareth be crafted in me amidst the ordinary parts of my life.

In the Name of my Savior who knew ordinary, but is anything but ordinary,
Amen.