God is all-knowing and all-powerful. He could have chosen any way for His Son to be born and yet...He chose what would seem to be the most inconvenient of circumstances possible!
Starting with Elizabeth. He caused Elizabeth and Zacharias to wait until they were both very old and had endured years of praying, rejection, and heartache before they received the news that they would finally have a baby and name him John. This promised child, who was the cousin of Jesus, would one day pave the way for the ministry of Jesus Christ, Himself. Pretty exciting news, but inconvenient timing. Although I am sure Elizabeth was overjoyed that she would be a mother after all these years, I can't imagine that being an easy pregnancy and delivery! Raising a child when you were "well stricken" in years was probably no cakewalk and required a lot of grace.
Flip over a page in your Bible to Mary. How convenient was the news of her impending pregnancy in the middle of her betrothal to her beloved Joseph? How easy do you think that concept was for her to grasp and how tough do you think it was for Joseph to believe that Mary had not been messing around behind his back? I would imagine pretty difficult seeing that he was making plans to divorce her until an angel appeared to him and told him that she was indeed telling the truth.
Then the labor and delivery. The thought of these inconvenient circumstances makes me cringe a little. God could have chosen any way at any point in time to get Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem. But riding on a donkey? When she was at the very point of delivery? This was His Son! Why put Mary through these circumstances? And if that weren't bad enough, now she had to deliver her first baby in a barn after laboring all day on the back of a donkey, with no midwife and only her husband?! Let that sink in! If you took a moment to think through that whole scenario, you are probably thinking just as I am, "Can it get any more inconvenient than that?" This was the birth of the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
Could there have been a better plan than a lowly manger for the precious Christ Child to rest in?  And yet...this HAD been the plan all along. God uses the "foolish things of the world to confound the wise."
He shows up right in the middle of somebody's "ordinary" and completely turns their lives upside down. He puts us in situations that often leave us wondering if He knows what He is doing or if He even cares about us anymore. But He DOES know what He is doing and He DOES care. He is orchestrating this amazing plan and using seemingly ordinary people. Every twist, every sharp pain, every rejection and inconvenient change of plans is slowly and steadily molding your heart into a masterpiece that is held in the hands of the Master Creator that one-day others will look at and say, "That is beautiful, she has been transformed into the very image of God!" And they will want to learn from you and follow you as you follow God. As you point them to the Savior, they will begin their journey on the path of righteousness. Some will trip over the inconvenient stones in the middle of the path and sadly, never get back up. But others will pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and resume their journey. A little wiser and a little stronger. You will encourage them as they walk, and they will encourage you as you walk down that path of righteousness paved with inconvenient, uncomfortable stones that desire to trip you up. But God will be your refuge. His name will be your strong tower that you run to and are saved.
God did not hesitate to inconvenience the mother of the Messiah and He will not hesitate to inconvenience you.
But just as He was with the mother of His precious Son, He will be with you.
Comments