“You are not what others think you are. You are what God knows you are.”
– Shannon L. Alde
Religious Author
I entitled this post, “God invites the nobodies,” for several reasons…
One: God does not play favorites… we are all made of the same cloth in his eyes.
Two: God has always done things in a very unconventional way.
Three: If you think you’re a “nobody” know that God sees you each and every day as an important somebody.
I say this because the story of Christ’s birth is surrounded by a bunch of nobodies. In fact the major players in the Christmas pageant were all unknowns leading up to Christ’s birth. God was not born to a queen or a king. He was not surrounded by wealth and comfort. His birth was not attended by royalty or heralded in the newspapers or magazines of the time… in fact, his birth was a rather squalid and humble affair.
Considering the amount of time, energy, and words we spend on talking and thinking about the birth of Prince William’s son, it’s interesting to think that no one of note knew about or attended God’s birth… no one except the “nobodies,” that is. Let’s take a moment to discuss these people.
Mary was a teenage girl from a small town. In Bible times, women were not important people. When you mix in her premarital pregnancy, you have a real nobody on your hands. Yet, she was God’s choice as one of the most important players in Jesus’s birth—she was his mother.
Joseph was a blue collar worker from the same small town, who took on Mary and marred his reputation in doing so. He also adopted the role of foster parent and surrogate dad to history’s most important son.
Shepherds were often poor, uneducated men and boys who worked day and night in the elements tending their sheep. Yet these lowly peasants were personally invited by the angles of God.
The Magi, though rich, were strange foreigners from strange lands with strange religions and beliefs, yet God invited these men to celebrate Christ’s birth.
In each instance, God chose an unconventional player in the Greatest Story Ever Told and in doing so, tells all of us that regardless of our earthly status, we too can have an important part in God’s story. Understand that God invites you to the same table he invited Mary and Joseph to. And although all — the poor and rich, the “somebodies” and the “nobodies,” the beautiful and the ugly, and the righteous and unrighteous — are welcome to the feast, some may not make it because they are too busy building their own kingdoms. In the meantime, God’s kingdom is filling up with the people no one notices— no one, except for Him.
