Same Old, Same Old
By Jon Walker
The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. Luke 2:20 (NIV)
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After we celebrate the birth of Jesus, we return to the office; we return to school; we return to the things we normally do.
The shepherds of Bethlehem did the same thing. God sent them to find the baby Jesus in a manger. They marveled at God and knew they’d been blessed to see the Messiah’s arrival.
And then they returned to their fields and flocks. They returned with an energized faith, glorifying and praising God. But, still, they returned to their routine.
God takes us to the mountaintop where he shows us great miracles and wonders, but he doesn’t leave us there. It is in the fields and among the flocks we tend that our faith grows, nurtured in the soil of the day-to-day, the mundane. This is where we die to Christ, allowing his life to blossom within us (Galatians 2:20).
Practical Nativity:
- The things we truly believe emerge day-to-day. It’s the conflicts over who makes the coffee, who cleans up the mess, who gets to go home early, or who gets the biggest piece of pie that test whether it is Christ who lives in us or if we’re still saying, “It is I who live.”
- God’s lessons are mastery-based. This means his intent is not to catch you doing something wrong; his intent is to reveal where you still need to yield to the Jesus-life growing in you.
If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2009 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.
