Our friend Katy over at Elsie Road magazine has been sending out some stellar, simple, thought-provoking advent devotions once a week to the magazines “insiders” who subscribe to the email list. This week’s Elsie Road devotional has really got me thinking and I thought I’d share with you some thoughts God is putting on my heart.
The advent devotional this week talked about Mary and the ordinariness of her life. Until of course an angel appeared and told her she would miraculously conceive God’s son, then it gets a little cray cray. The most relatable part of the story of Mary is how simply ordinary Mary was.
The ordinariness of Mary’s life did not exclude her from God’s plan. She didn’t have to have a prestigious position or a well known name to be noticed by God. God wasn’t looking for flashy success in multiple platforms or areas of life, but faithfulness in little. Faithfulness in the ordinary, the mundane. Mary did ordinary in a way that was pleasing to God. She faithfully served him in the work he had given her every day, and it was pleasing to Him.
In today’s world an ordinary life can be considered insignificant. We strive to do something astounding, impressive, viral, photo worthy, and shareable. We want our lives to be a social media buzz and validate our significance. We attribute significance to worldly validations.
Really, most of us will just live ordinary lives. Our ordinary lives are significant when they are lived in the knowledge of who God is and what he has done for us. Through Christ’s birth, death and resurrection an ordinary life, lived in an ordinary way, becomes the life of a daughter or son of the King doing Kingdom work to the glory and honour of the King.
Mary lived her life preceding the angel’s news in simple obedience to the God she loved. She anticipated that he would do what he said and bring a Saviour and she lived daily waiting for the promise to be fulfilled. Her response to the angel’s news that she will give birth to the Son of God is astounding, “…may it be done to me according to your word.” Luke 1:38. She knew the God she served and trusted Him with the outcome of these wild events and submitted to His plan.
We all are called to serve God faithfully in all the ordinary he gives us to do. This is what he desires – a people who respond in love to Him with their ordinary lives, doing ordinary things, for an extraordinary God.
Your ordinary is extraordinary when done for God.
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Thank you so much for posting this! I love love your thoughts on Mary’s perspective. So thought-provoking.
Thank you Katy! your devotional was the catalyst 🙂