I was thinking about Mary today. Not MY Mary, the other famous one - you know, the one that birthed baby Jesus. Thinking about how God choose a young girl (she was most likely 14 or 15 years old!). From a not-famous-or wealthy-or influential family. About to marry a young boy (Joseph might have been 16 or 17). Also from a not-famous-or-wealthy-or-influential family. From an insignificant little town. Traipsing to an obscure little village. 9 months' pregnant. (Moms, pause for just a moment and ponder riding on the back of a donkey on dirt and gravel roads for 69 miles. Hours away from delivery. Uh, right. Lots of loving communication for "couple time", I am sure) Then birthing a baby, apparently without a midwife (certainly without an ob/gyn staff that she had months to become attached to and trust with her very life) in a stable. With animals around. So much for freaking out over dropping a pacifier on the floor and handing it to baby without first sterilizing it. Then He announced the World's Greatest News to a bunch of shepherds. Dirty, smelly, uneducated shepherds. That came to look at Mary's newborn. Most of us shudder. (or maybe scream at poor Joseph. surely this is all his fault??)
God could have done it differently. He could have sent His Son as an adult. Surrounded by angels, with an entourage fit for the King that He is. Or He could have chosen pristine birthing conditions in the center of the Roman Empire with all the medical specialists of the day. At least He could have chosen some more impressive characters to bring forth His Son. And to welcome Him to the world. Some folks that others would have looked up to, paid attention to, helped with a room or at least a casserole!
But He didn't. God's choices. Nearly all of the time, His rests His plans in the hands of the insignificant ordinaries. Or the obviously wrong option. On purpose!
Personally, I am thankful He operates that way. Relieved. Joyful! Gives me hope.
Maybe you need to be reminded about God's choices. As in, if you don't feel gifted, remember Moses. As in, if you have a not-so-perfect past, remember Rahab. (we're talking prostitute, people!) As in, if you have messed up since He called you - think about Abraham. (uh, turned his wife over to another man because he was afraid...twice!!!!) Or Noah (drinking binge on the heels of being saved from worldwide destruction. Actually, after 40 days couped up on the boat with those animals, that's kind of understandable....) If you're just an ordinary nobody, think Gideon. If you have had every advantage and you still blew it, think David and Solomon and Paul. If you feel defeated because you've proven yourself a failure or a coward or hopeless....think Peter.
God's choices. He seems to always be about the unlikely. The ones that nobody believed in or counted on or even noticed.
And, just in case you are one of the other folks...if you are important or significant or gifted or have never messed up royally....well, thankfully, for YOU, God is not a respecter of persons. He will still take you, too, and turn you into part of His plan. But, just to warn you. You probably have some humbling to do. Cuz, really, none of us are significant or gifted or important.
"But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong and the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen, the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are, that no man should boast before God." 1 Corinthians 1:27-29
God's choices.
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