When Things are not Normal

     Days come and go without too much fanfare.  It does seem that the older you get, the faster they go, but things just seem to happen day by day and that becomes the normal part of life.  The sun rises and the sun sets, or so we say as the earth spins on its axis at just the right tilt and speed.  So, we say that things are "normal."  I once heard of a woman who defined the word "normal" as a setting on her dryer.  What is "normal?"  First Timothy 3:16 says, "And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory."   
      Normalcy is often interrupted by something that God has planned and that the world knows nothing about.  That is not to day that they could have known about it if they had been reading His letter to them but that is not the world's way.  The above verse of Scripture is a synopsis of the Life of the Lord Jesus Christ.  December is the month in which we celebrate the holiday of Christmas.  The commercialization of Christmas has put us in the dark as to what happened and how it should affect us.  Back in that day, shepherds were in their places doing what shepherds do at that time of the year.  They were tending to the needs of their flocks and it was probably just another normal day for them but then things changed.  We read about what happened that night. and realize that it was not the "normal" night for them.  It was not just another day.  It was a day that would go down in history as the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ took place.  The event would be recorded in the gospels and would remind us that no day is a normal day when God is involved in your life.  What took place that night would prove to be an event that would change the course of the world.  It would be the event that would give the prospect of hope and peace to oppressed people everywhere.  It would be the event that would give hope to the eternal destiny of every inhabitant in the world.  It would be the event that would be out of character and hence, not the "normal" thing for the day.  This event would be that which would be unique and never repeated again.  God would send His Son only once to put on flesh and then to live and to die and then, of course, the resurrection.    The verse describes the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and then ends with His ascension into heaven.  Normalcy gave way to magnificence as God performed this miracle.  While we were not physically present at that time, we still have the record of what happened as recorded in the Bible and we can review it time and time again and then realize that when God is involved, there is no such thing as "normal."  Oh it would be normal to say that God always does that which is awesome for us to behold and that would be normal for Him.  If you are caught up in the just plain normal things of your daily routine, take time out and read the Scriptures, especially those of the coming of Christ upon the earth to live and to die and to be buried and then to raise from the dead.