Master of the Mess
This week’s devotional is written by Leslie Eichhorn, a team member at Nancy Hicks Live.
The world Jesus was born into was a mess. If we were to craft the story of how Jesus came into the world, it wouldn’t sound like this:
The angel Gabriel proclaimed God had chosen a betrothed (but unmarried) woman, Mary, as the mother of Jesus, and declared the baby’s name would be Jesus. Mary’s fiance, Joseph, chose to stay with her, knowing it would be easier to break up with her quietly.
Messy.
When the time came for the baby to be born, we don’t know exactly where Mary went into labor and bore God’s son. We DO know it wasn’t in a sterile hospital or a comfy bedroom. It was most likely in a stable among animals with their excrement and smells and noises, in a small backwater town called Bethlehem.
Messy.
Mary didn’t have a step-by-step birth plan. She had no midwife helping her through the birth. Joseph was probably in a panic with no idea how to help her. There were no nurses to clean the baby or deal with the afterbirth. And once He arrived, Jesus’ first bed was a feeding trough for animals.
Very messy.
Not long after His birth, Mary and Joseph fled to Egypt with Jesus at God’s own urging, because King Herod (the ruler of Judea) ordered the murder of all male children in the region under two years old. He thought a toddler was a threat to His throne. Anyone who has driven a car with a small child as a passenger knows how taxing it is, much less a cross-country trip on a pack animal.
Messy.
This is not the “once upon a time” fairytale most of us would have written for God’s son. But we didn’t write this story. God did.
This is the story of Jesus, fully God and fully man, who came down from heaven straight into the mess. Our own “God With Us.”
Jesus is not surprised by our mess. So let Him enter into it. Tell Him about it. He’s listening. He’s been there. Your mess doesn’t scare Him or disgust Him.
He isn’t going anywhere. He is God With Us. ..in the mess.
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