No Ordinary Night

It wasn’t an ordinary night that night when Jesus was born. Poor Mary was giving birth with animals breathing down her neck, and mice scurrying around behind her. There wasn’t a midwife to guide her through the whole process. Maybe the innkeeper’s wife offered some assistance, I don’t know. Even if she did, it still wasn’t an ordinary night.

No doubt Joseph was lacking in midwifery skills, and yet, there he was with this teenage girl/woman to whom he wasn’t even married yet. It was certainly a night WAY out of his ordinary.

Do you suppose the shepherds in the fields had ever had an angel talk to them before, or an entire host of heavenly beings singing above them? It was definitely not an ordinary night for the shepherds.

And though the shepherds spread the news of all they had seen and heard about the mysterious birth in the stable there were, no doubt, many who slept right through that announcement. When the town of Bethlehem started to stir the morning after Jesus’ birth, the bulk of it’s population didn’t know a Savior had been born right in their midst. Even if the town crier went throughout the town announcing the birth of the promised Messiah, who would have believed him? How could a baby save the world?

No indeed. For the rest of the world, it was just another ordinary night.

How many people will wake up in the world this morning and forget that today is an extraordinary day? It’s not just a day to get together with your extended family, exchange presents, and eat an insane amount of food. It’s a day to celebrate the extraordinary—the miracle of the Savior’s birth.

You probably won’t see a host of heavenly angels over the landscape of your neighborhood, but know this—they’re there. Please don’t miss the still, small whisper of God as he cries out to you with the news “your Savior has come.” Don’t treat today like an ordinary day because it’s anything but. If you haven’t given your heart to Jesus, this would be a great day to start new with him—the extraordinary Savior who loved you enough to come to this earth in human form, and die to take away your sins.

Today is no ordinary day. Tonight is no ordinary night.

“Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.” Luke 2:11