The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe
"The Miraculous In the Mundane"
God often does Heavenly things in the most earthly of ways.
"Being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way. And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise and take the young child and His mother and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word. For Herod will seek the young child to destroy Him. When he arose, he took the young child and His mother by night, and departed into Egypt" (Matthew 2: 12-14).
Why not simply call into action the "twelve legions of angels" the Lord Jesus would one day mention as an army standing on ready to serve and defend their Master? (Matthew 26:53). Flight into Egypt seems like a burdensome, unnecessary, and uncertain means of protection for God's beloved Son. However, our Heavenly Father's eternal purposes, as enacted in time, often require the mundane rather than the miraculous. Indeed, the miraculous often manifests God's glory in the mundane. To redeem earthly people, our Lord acts in earthly ways, including and especially determining that His Son should enrobe Himself with our humanity. "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same" (Hebrews 2:14).
We do well to expect the same working in our own lives. We will frequently miss our Lord and His working if we fail to recognize the miraculous that quietly manifests itself in the mundane. Consider Jacob at Luz (later referred to us Bethel, or "house of God), where he dreamt of the angelic ladder. He awakened from spiritual slumber to realize how blind he had been: "Surely the Lord is in this place and I knew it not!" (Genesis 28:12-16). The place seemed ordinary to Jacob, which provides just the sort of venue in which our Heavenly Father often works to reveal His glory. Most of our present life does not involve overt and spectacular displays of the power of God. Countless miracles of the mundane, however, flow like a subterranean stream of glory beheld only by those who join Moses in "seeing Him who is invisible" (Hebrews 11:27).
Long ago, at Luz and in Egypt, our Lord revealed His present purpose to frequently work in ways known only to those who have eyes to see. Anticipating the miraculous in the mundane prepares our hearts to behold the glory of God in venues that may seem far too ordinary for our glorious King. The truth, however, reveals that this is precisely where we will often discover our "Luz" that turns out to be "Bethel, the house of God."
"Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh."
(I Timothy 3:16)
"My expectation is from Him" (Psalm 62:5).
"He hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him."
(Isaiah 53:2)
Weekly Memory Verse
Oh how great is Thy goodness, which Thou hast laid up for them that fear thee, which Thou hast wrought for them that trust in Thee before the sons of men!
(Psalm 31:19)
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