Advent - the Gift DevotionalSample

“God turns the ordinary into extraordinary”

In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. (Luke 2:8-9)

One word describes that first Christmas night: ordinary. It was an ordinary night! It would have been cold there in the field, but it was an ordinary night. And there were ordinary sheep there. They didn’t have golden fleeces. They were not blue-ribbon sheep.

And there were ordinary shepherds too. Shepherds were considered the lowest of the low, and I’m sure the clothes on their bodies were the only clothes they owned.

So you have an ordinary night with ordinary sheep and ordinary shepherds. But then suddenly, the Bible tells us, there was a glow. There was the glory of God expressed and an angel appeared!

Suddenly, everything about that ordinary first Christmas night was changed because God put in front of “ordinary” the little word extra. And suddenly, that night became extra-ordinary! The night of miracles! A supernatural moment in history never seen before! And never seen since. Have you fully understood and responded to God’s extraordinary love shown to you on that ordinary night?