Here is a quote that spoke to me today. I found it in James Lumsden's blog post, which is worth reading in its entirety. The quote is from Henri Nouwen, a favorite theologian across all of my ages.
We expect God to show up in “spectacles, power plays, significant and extraordinary events” that will change the course of history in their grandiosity. We, ourselves, are often taken-in by wealth, prestige, and sparkling things that glitter and shine. We can be so easily distracted. Perhaps that is why God chose to come to us as a small child of Palestinian peasants in an insignificant stable surrounded by animals and shepherds. This way we see that God’s kingdom is humble, simple, small, and very vulnerable. One of the gifts and surprises from Jesus is that he shows up for us in the most unlikely little places – and if we refuse to look for holy in what is small, we will likely give-in to despair.
And here is a sketch I've been working on for the past week. I didn't begin with an intention to draw a stable and a manger. Those appeared as a surprise, distressing at first, because the page wasn't what I envisioned. But as I've worked with it, it's become one of the highlights of my week:
Now it's back to finishing grades for my online classes and finishing papers for my seminary classes.
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