Jesus and ...: How God Works Through Ordinary PeopleSample

Partnering with Jesus to Find Significance in the Ordinary

Every one of us is looking for significance in life. We want to know we have made a difference. But sometimes when we observe people who we think are more successful than we are, we can feel insignificant—even worthless.

Have you noticed that it is often mundane actions by unlikely people that are the most significant stories in the kingdom of God? The Gospels are filled with these stories. One of these involves an elderly woman named Anna. Of all the stories Luke heard and researched, why did he record this one, which takes up just three verses of Scripture?

On first glance, this story seems completely arbitrary—almost irrelevant. If this were a scene in a modern movie, it almost certainly would have ended up on the cutting room floor. But God included her story in His.

The temple where Anna spent her days was a hive of activity. Numerous priests and temple servants said fervent prayers and made daily offerings. In the temple courts, animals were bought and sold for the proscribed sacrifices, and pilgrims exchanged their currency for the required temple coinage.

It was into this busy scene that Mary and Joseph came to fulfill the requirements of the law. But what allowed Anna to recognize a very ordinary-looking baby as the long-awaited Messiah? What enabled her to see beyond the normal routines of her day? Anna was not preoccupied. She was present and aware. Like the wise before her, she understood the times. She knew what God was doing.

Like Anna’s, much of our life is commonplace. It is often filled with everyday challenges, simple tasks, and daily routines. Yet it is these seemingly prosaic events, and the way we face them, that can enable us to live a life of significance. Most of Jesus’ life, for instance, was shrouded in anonymity, and a great deal of His public life was ordinary. He ate, drank with His friends, traveled, and slept where He could. He spent time walking, fishing, and even cooking. Yet these mundane activities were interspersed with His miracles. The way we live the mundane will often determine how we experience the miraculous.

The ordinary actions of Anna were considered significant enough to be included in Scripture. She also points us to Jesus. Jesus and Anna is a story worth telling. “Jesus and you” is also a story worth telling.

Question to Ponder: How can you look differently at your mundane routines so that you, like Anna, can find significance and experience the miraculous?