On Christmas Eve I came up with this fantastic idea for a
blog post. I was going to write about
imagining who in the nativity story I am most like and who in the Christmas
story I should be more like. And then I
was going to encourage my readers to do the same.
If I had written this blog post I would have written about
how I am most like the inn keeper- the one who said there was no room in the
inn for Mary, Joseph, and their about-to-be-born baby. I would have drawn the parallels between me
and the inn keeper: I don’t leave “room” for Jesus, I’m too busy or occupied to
be open to God’s imminent plans, and I’m reluctant to say “yes” to things that
I know will be “messy” and difficult.
And then I would have written about how I would like to be
more Mary who so quickly and willingly accepted the seemingly bizarre and
difficult role God laid out for her. I
would have written about how I desire to be more like the shepherds and the
wise men who dropped everything to go find and worship Jesus.
While this is all true and good to think about, what I
realized as I formulated the blog post in my head is that I would have been
writing a blog post about trying to be someone I’m not.
In the birth of Jesus, God created the inn keeper to play a necessary
part in this story. Without the inn
keeper doing what the inn keeper did, the birth of Jesus would not have
occurred in the way it was prophesied and meant to be. While in our human minds we may view the inn
keeper as rude and not very hospitable, but in God’s master plan without that
inn keeper turning Mary and Joseph away, Jesus would not have been born in the
stable and placed in the manger.
Likewise, God created me for a specific role in God’s story. It certainly isn’t exactly the role that I
would have picked for myself. I look at
myself and see my role as that of an “extra” on the set, while I’d really like
to play that staring role. I desire to
be someone else who is accomplishing bigger and better things. I’m unhappy with waiting for things to happen
in my life that I see happening so quickly for others.
But here’s the thing: God created me to be me. God created me for a specific and wonderful purpose.
While I need to stop trying to be someone I’m not, I do need
to strive to live more fully as the person God created me to be. To trust that God knew exactly what he was
doing when he created me just as I am.
God trusts me in the role he created for me. My role is a vital role, just as your role is
a vital role. We have a responsibility
to play the roles we were created to play.
If we don’t play our role the story won’t happen as God intended it to
happen and we will miss out on so much.
So may we all have the courage to be the people who God
created us to be. May we turn to God and
trust that God knows exactly what God is doing even when we think we have a way
better plan. And may we rejoice as we
see the Kingdom of God unveiled around and through us.
