2230 The Miraculous Ordinary

When we think of the miracles of Jesus, we think of the blind given sight, the paralyzed standing to walk – yes, the instant, miraculous healings. But today, let’s look at a miracle of Jesus we don’t think about.

How about what a total miracle it is that our glorious God, the creator of the entire Universe, the one who knows everything, sees everything and controls everything, the one who holds the entire world literally in the palm of his hand – yes THAT God, became human. He himself, being fully God, also became fully human. He didn’t just watch us from a throne in Heaven, he desired to walk with us as one of us.

What a miracle Jesus himself truly is. With all this power, all this authority, all this sovereignty, he allowed himself to become an infant. A baby born just like all other babies. A toddler who learned to talk and walk just like all other toddlers. Jesus was a teenager. Then he became a carpenter. People literally hired Jesus to build their new house for them. Gosh, that must have been a well-built house! The one who handcrafted my favorite places in the world like the Dolomite mountains in Italy, the jungles of Bali, the clear turquoise waters of the Florida Keys, the towering redwood trees in the forest and the most glorious hand-painted sunsets on the coast … the one who created became human and lived in his own creation.

Not because he had to. Not because there was a God above him that wrote the plan. But because God Almighty chose to. There’s nothing and no one that compares to our God. His power and his passion. His will and his willingness. He’s heavenly and he’s humble. He’s sovereign and he’s surrendered.

Our Jesus was fully God and became fully human. As human as you and I are. You know that song, “Mary, did you know?” Really my question is, “Jesus, did you know?” Did you always know you were God? Did you know everything even as a young child? Did you understand how all of these secret things work and just pretend to be learning like the rest of us?

We’re given clues in scripture that he learned just like we learn. He was taught how to speak one word at a time. There was a moment when he took his very first steps, followed by a fall. He learned carpentry from his Dad, Joseph. He learned scripture as a young Jewish boy. All while he was God, he allowed himself to be fully human. How bizarre is that?

I wonder at what point Jesus came to understand who he really was? Was there a moment sitting on the floor of the synagogue with all his classmates, memorizing the Torah, that he had an ah-ha moment of wait – this book is talking about me. I’M THE ONE WHO CREATED THE EARTH. IT WAS ME WHO SPOKE THIS INTO EXISTENCE. I WAS THERE.

What an absolute miracle that Jesus allowed himself to be fully human. A human who hurt and cried. A human who needed rest. A human who had to go away so he could spend time talking to God, just like us. A human who could be unjustly killed. All while he still had the divine power to NOT be human, yet he chose to be.

That’s the power of a purpose filled mission. Here, as a human, God revealed to him the purpose of his 32 years of life on this earth, and he would not be detoured from it. He would wait until the time was right to begin revealing who he was, to put his power into public miraculous displays, yet remain fully surrendered to an unfolding plan to murder him.

I can’t even wrap my mind around that. You see in my earthly way of thinking, it just doesn’t make sense. Couldn’t God have changed us and saved us in some other way? Couldn’t he have made this easier? Couldn’t he force his goodness? Couldn’t he enforce his will upon us? All this time he could have stripped us of our will to choose our own way, he could have taken away our human desires, he could have stripped us of our flesh … but instead with the greatest act of love ever known, he instead became flesh and sacrificed himself to save us.

Now that’s a miracle.

There was a moment during Jesus’ lifetime here on Earth when he revealed himself as fully God. A moment when the veil was lifted and he wasn’t human. A moment when his flesh was overtaken by his true divine nature. It’s the miracle of the transfiguration. Do you know about this?

In Matthew 17, Jesus takes 3 of this disciples (Peter, James and John) up to a high mountaintop to be alone with them. These 3 men were his inner circle, his closest friends. And there on the mountaintop, it says, “As the men watched, Jesus’ appearance was transformed so that his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as light. Suddenly, Moses and Elijah appeared and began talking with Jesus.”

The miracle wasn’t that Jesus suddenly looked like a God. The miracle was always that our God allowed himself to be human. This was like hitting pause on the miracle and letting Jesus’ true identity be revealed for a moment to his 3 closest friends. It was a behind the scenes peak of who they were really with.

The miracle wasn’t so much that Jesus’ face was shining like the sun and his clothes were glowing – the miracle was that every other moment of Jesus life he looked human. The miracle was that while he was human he was actually still fully God and most everyone had no idea!

This makes me wonder … where is God in our real lives today, showing up in seemingly ordinary ways? Where is his glory hidden to appear human? Where is his power unfolding, but in the most mysterious way ever that makes the miraculous look so incredibly natural.

God is here today, he just doesn’t look the way you imagined. He’s working all around you, and maybe you’ve dismissed it as normal or even as luck. Girl, you would be absolutely stunned if God truly revealed himself for even a moment.

If the moment of transfiguration were to happen again and the veil between heaven and earth were dropped and you saw God’s presence in what seems ordinary, just like this moment on the mountaintop with Peter, James and John – woah! Imagine seeing God’s face in the sun. Imagine seeing his massive hands reaching down from the sky. Imagine locking eyes with him in the stranger you walk by.

It’s really a miracle that we don’t see him. It’s a miracle he’s made his power seem so ordinary. It’s a miracle he allows us to be so human, get it so wrong, yet never leave us. It’s a miracle that he hasn’t struck us all with lightening and started over again with the human race.

It’s a miracle that every breath we take is LITERALLY the breath of God filling our lungs, giving us life, allowing our very existence, and we act as if that’s just normal. God is just in disguise all around us, doing what only he can do, and loving us so perfectly, just as he did through Jesus.

I’m now beginning to realize everything that looks so ordinary is likely totally extraordinary! That’s just the way God does it.

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