February 12, 2016: Finding God in Unexpected Places

Luke 2:1-7

And she gave birth to her firstborn son (v. 7)…

I wonder how Mary felt when she looked at her newborn child the way mothers do—studying every hair on his little head, every crease on his wrinkled face. I wonder if she understood the enormity of what had happened. The promised Messiah had been born at last, and there he was, cradled in her arms.

God’s handiwork is nowhere more difficult to see than when it occurs in your own life. Our own lives are too familiar, too common, to sense the mystery of God pulsing through them. But Mary knew that God had acted in her life, and there in the manger was the proof of it.

Mary understood that God is at work in unexpected places. And from Mary you can learn that God is at work in the most unexpected place of all—your life. Your marriage. Your job. Your family. Your church.
“She gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger…” Would you ever have expected to find God in a manger—a feed box for animals? No. But you’d never expect to find God in your own life, either. Yet that is where God is.

God acts in the lives of real people. Like Mary. Like you. And Christmas is the proof of it.

Prayer: Lord, be in my life.

Today’s devotional was written by Lou Lotz, the pastoral leader of Central Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This Lenten series comes from Words of Hope, whose mission is to build the church in the hard places through media. To learn more about the organization or subscribe to Words of Hope’s daily devotions, visitwww.woh.org.