Advent Thoughts: Who Did God Use?

Who does God delight in revealing Himself to? Who does He so often choose to spread His message of love? Is it the qualified and highly trained? Or the ordinary person?

This Advent season, I’ve been reading again the incredible story of Jesus’ birth. There is so much to be amazed about, ponder, and think about in this amazing, historical account.

God Didn’t Chose the Influential to Announce His Son’s Birth

Today I asked myself the question: “If I were the Messiah coming to earth, who would I first announce my arrival to?”

I’d probably look for people of influence, good communicators, people who are believable and have credibility. I’d want to choose those who are well-educated and could clearly and eloquently articulate the message of my coming.

Jesus chose to announce His long-awaited, miraculous arrival to shepherds in a field. Let that sink in for a minute. Uneducated laborers. Common people who lived outside among sheep.

Why not rabbis? He chose shepherds!

Why in the world would God choose them? Doesn’t He know they don’t understand things very quickly?!! (I’m kidding of course, though I have experienced firsthand how it can sometimes be hard to get less educated people to understand new concepts and principles!)

Why not the Rabbis? Why not the High Priest? Why not the upstanding citizens of the big city of Jerusalem, or at least the scribes who could properly write it all down??

God chose to give the first announcement of His coming to Earth to extremely ordinary people. He then chose to spread that word, the testimony of His birth, through them.

“When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.”

Luke 2:17-18

If God chose to do this, maybe we too should consider the key role that ordinary people play in sharing His message. Maybe we should trust and empower the less educated, the less articulate, the day laborers and field workers to do the work of the ministry. It isn’t God who thinks we need lots of qualifications to share His good news. It is us as humans who have put many conditions on who is qualified to do the work of the Kingdom.

A major key to seeing a DMM (Disciple Making Movement) released is that we believe in, and give genuine authority to ordinary believers. We trust them to do the work of the ministry. God was willing to trust lay people without much training.  Shouldn’t we?