Sat., Dec. 3, 2016

 Luke 1:26: In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee.  

It’s an innocent question: “Where are you from?”

Unless you are from THAT village.

You know, the one no one really wants to be from.

Growing up, THAT village was Fairchild. While no one specifically told me, I somehow knew that only people on welfare were from Fairchild. Or at least that was the perception I had. It was a poor community where only poor people lived. Osseo accepted Fairchild into their school district because someone had to. Fairchild couldn’t support a school on its own.

Did I really know anyone from Fairchild? Well, not really. I just knew it’s the village nobody wanted to be from.

Imagine being from THAT village.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, was from THAT village. No, she wasn’t from Fairchild but she was from the village no one wanted to be from. You see, Nazareth was THAT village.

How do we know this? After the disciple Peter met Jesus, he was telling his friend Nathaniel how he had met Jesus of Nazareth. Nathaniel instinctively said, “How can that be? Nothing good ever comes from Nazareth.”

Ouch.

Yet Jesus did. Because that’s where his mother was from.

Why would God choose the mother of the Messiah to be from THAT village? To demonstrate to us that yes, even people from THAT village deserve a Savior. A Messiah. Christ the Lord.

Maybe my view on someone being from THAT village needs to change. If God can love and respect people from the wrong side of the tracks, maybe I can to. If God chose a simple pheasant girl from THAT village, then God is far more interested in our hearts than where we are from.

I’m glad there are villages like Fairchild and Nazareth. They keep us humble. Maybe, just maybe, the folks from Fairchild thought where I went to school, Augusta, was THAT village. Just maybe.

 Lord God, how quickly we label people based on where they are from. Thank goodness you look beyond this to our hearts. Encourage us to do the same. Amen.

 Today’s item for Jesus’ birthday box: can of fruit (oh, I’m putting mandarin oranges in my box!)

Blessings –

Dianne

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