Christmas devotional

Last week I wrote a contribution for the Advent resource the church I attend with my daughters is collating. In short, it’s a mash-up of a few Tiny Bible Bits. Here’s my devotional…

Where have you seen God this week?

For the best part of a decade, in every church service I led - which was most Sundays when I was a youth minister - I would ask the following question to the congregation.

In the big and the small, the extraordinary and the ordinary, where have you seen God this week?

For the first few weeks the responses would be short and hesitant.

But, over time, the congregation would become used to the question and become more comfortable sharing where they had encountered God outside of the weekly church service.

To be blunt, my agenda behind the question was for those in church to open their eyes.

I wanted those in the churches I worked for to expect to see God throughout their week and begin actively looking for Him outside of the two hours they were in the church building.

Sometimes the stories shared were inspirational.

Sometimes the stories showed the church in its best light as people wonderfully supported and encouraged each other.

At other times, the stores were simple.

A sunrise.

A conversation.

Something someone saw online.

And the nature of my question allowed for this.

For God is seen in both the big and small.

Jesus can be encountered in both the extraordinary and the ordinary.

We see this in the gospels.

Jesus raises the dead and releases the tormented.

Jesus feeds the masses and heals the sick.

But Jesus also teaches while He travels.

He has a conversation by a well while His disciples are off gathering food.

We see can see this in the Christmas story.

The birth narratives include lowly outcast shepherds and choirs of angels.

We find a guiding star pointing towards a filthy manger.

We meet an unwed mother and the Promised Saviour.

Earlier this year I was lucky enough to travel to Rome.

As you would expect, while there, I went to a lot of churches (there are reported to be 900 in the city!). Amongst all these churches we visited were the four great basilicas of Rome, including St Peter’s in the Vatican.

One of the points of a cathedral is to be big and extraordinary.

They are designed to take your breath away.

In that place, you are to encounter God by the size and extravagance surrounding you.

And yet, I’ve also sat in a small church in Seaforth.

And God was just as present.

In the big and the small.

The extraordinary and the ordinary.

Where are you seen God this week?

Where will you see Him in the story of Christmas?