Glory in the Every Day
By Sarah Lee Thomas
As I begin to write, my mind is scattered about on my list, the to-dos, the to-gets, mentally mapping out the remaining hours and trying to figure out where all the pieces will fit–don’t forget the thing another neuron fires off! It’s hard this season to just pause and be present in the moments. Who am I kidding, it’s kinda always hard to do that anymore. Our lives are pretty constantly full of ordinary, everyday things. Fun things and chores. We always have water to fetch or sheep to tend.
Moses was doing everyday things in Exodus 3 when he turned to see the Glory of God…
Exodus 3: 1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. 3 Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.”
The woman at the well was doing everyday things in John 4 when Jesus met her there and spoke to her…
7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”
The shepherds were doing everyday things in Luke 2 when they were given the glorious news…
8 And there were shepherds residing in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks by night. 9 Just then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid! For behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people: 11 Today in the city of David a Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord! 12 And this will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there appeared with the angel a great multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying: 14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests!” 15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.”
I’ve read Matthew 28 before and felt at a loss, asked myself how’s this supposed to work or thought maybe someday we can be part of a mission trip. Recently, and this will be familiar to those that did Jonah with me this fall, I got a different perspective on the Great Commission. Priscilla Shirer in relating the Go of Matthew 28 and the Go in Jonah, shared with us that “in the Greek language, go is an aorist participle, which means it takes on the mood of the command–making disciples. It could more accurately be translated as going. In other words, the command to make disciples should be accomplished while believers are going about their business. As you are going make disciples in all the nations…we must remember that sharing Jesus is supposed to be a way we live, not just something we do.”
One of my favorite passages specifically in The Message, talks about our everyday ordinary lives.
Romans 12: 1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
This Christmas, find comfort and cheer in the fact that even in the water fetching and sheep herding, we only need to look and see that the Glory is there with us, always. Now, go make Christmas merry and bright for others by sharing Jesus as you shine the light of your everyday, ordinary, joyful life across their path.
