Weekly Devotional for January 24, 2016

Scripture reading: John 1:43-51 (Appointed for Jan 30)

I began last week's devotional with a mea culpa about the previous week's lack of a devotional reading. What I had planned for that absent week was to talk about Deborah in the book of Judges (specifically Judges 4:1-9). I was going to speak of how God often does the unexpected; calling forth into his service those the people think are least able or least worthy of it.

Deborah is no exception to that. After all, it's really only been in the last few decades (and the work is still far from done) that women have been regarded as equal to men. Yet here is a story from thousands of years ago where a woman leads the people of God to victory in battle.

This is hardly the only time God does this sort of thing. Again and again, countless times, God calls the least-likely to do extraordinary things for his Kingdom.

Which brings us to our reading from John and our discovery that Jesus himself was regarded as a surprise by many who encountered him.

"Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"

We all encountered people like Nathaniel. Snobs. The snooty. People who believe themselves above it all. The too-cool-for-school crowd. When Nathaniel hears that the Messiah comes out of some backwater town like Nazareth, he cannot believe it.

I can't imagine what he would think if he heard the full story of Jesus' birth. "Yes, he really was born in a barn."

I am convinced God loves to take people like this down a peg or two, but not in a harsh or unkind way. What God wants is for us to open our eyes and minds, to recognize that things aren't always as we believe them to be. And that's precisely what happens to Nathaniel. Once he meets Jesus, once he hears him speak, he comes to realize just how wrong he was. Yes, something good DID come out of Nazareth. The Christ himself.

We walk through our lives often thinking we've got this whole God thing figured out. But that's very much so arrogant presumption. God's always full of surprises. You never know who or what God might use to shake us out of our complacency. We never stop learning. We never stop growing. God is always showing us something new, about him, about our world, about the people around us. There is wonder here unimagined, right in front of us, if only we could see it.

Time and again, I am convinced that one of God's goals with us is for us to see this world and its people through his eyes. To view them with his love. When and if that happens, do you really think the things we hold up as so important will matter any more? Gender? Politics? Race? Sexual orientation? We are made imago dei, in the image of God, and he loves all of us beyond words.

Perhaps that's the greatest surprise of all.