Rediscovering the Extraordinary in the Ordinary...

For some of us, Christmas seems to culminate in a sort of anti-climax...The day we anticipated has come and gone, the garland and tinsel are taken down, the feast is over, the day is spent, and stillness displaces the sound of celebration.  The flash-in-the-pan of this festival barely lingers in the air and the extraordinary becomes ordinary once again.

But there is something of Jesus to be seen in even this, perhaps especially in this, perhaps more of Him than could be seen in the sensationalism of the season.  As we shed the acoutrements of Christmas, the accompaniment of Advent, as our homes take on a more humble air, an absence of excess, a picture of Emmanuel emerges.

Jesus came to earth taking on the form of a servant, trading kingly attire for carpenter's clothes.  Eshewing royal embellishments, he chose to be born in a barn.  Casting aside clout, he courted companions of questionable origin and remained in anonymity for all but three years of his life.

His pulpits were rocks and roadsides, rowboats and rivers; He preferred the company of commoners to consorting with the creme de la creme; He rejoiced more over one sinner who was restored than over a hundred who never had need of repentence.

This One Who so easily could've been placed on a pedestal, disallowed such positioning and instead maintained an unpretentious posture, choosing conformity to our condition over the comfort of prestige and power.

Perhaps there is more to be seen of our extraordinary Lord in the ordinary, unremarkable, undecorated details of every day life, and thankfully so, because that is what much of life is, and that is where we tend to need Him most.

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"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not condsider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, and coming in the likeness of men.  And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.  Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." -Philipians 2:5-11