God is a God of the ordinary. He does the miraculous through ordinary means. He uses ordinary people and simple methods to accomplish his divine goals. In some mysterious way, God decides to work in and through things that would otherwise seem very average.
Paul writes in Corinthians, "But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong."
God is the in the business of choosing the simple, ordinary, everyday things to do his miraculous work. While we are often interested in looking for the super-natural miracles, we often miss the everyday kind of miracles. We look for the sudden cured disease and miss God working through doctors and surgeons. We look for God’s audible voice or a dream and we miss God’s speaking through simple words on a page.
God is a God of the miraculous. And sometimes those miracles are far more common than you might realize.
When we gather together as God’s people, we often will come together around a table to eat bread and drink some wine. But when we do this, there is more than meets the eye. It is not only bread and wine, but it is body and blood. And it is more than just a meal, but it is a promise of forgiveness.
When we baptize, while it might seem like just water, there is more going on that a ritual of washing. God is giving his gift of faith. God is rescuing his child in the midst of something as ordinary as baptism.
When we read and hear God’s word, it might seem like just ink on a page or air waves going through the air, but there is more than meets the eye going on. God is speaking to us and in the proclamation, God works convicting us, speaking forgiveness to us, and instructing us.
When Balaam’s donkey all of the sudden starts talking, he realizes his donkey was more than just a donkey. When the disciples receive the Holy Spirit in Acts and start the Christian Church, we realize that fishermen were more than just fishermen. When Jesus hangs on a cross for the death of all people, we realize that a Roman execution device is more than just a Roman execution device.
And this isn’t about the tools in God’s divine plan, it’s not about us. God repeatedly gives his grace through ordinary means that he has promised to us. And he does the same as he serves us and those around us through the ordinary means of our callings.
More than...
In our work, it might seem like just a job.
In our homes, it might seem like just another day of caring for the kids.
In our churches, it might seem like just volunteering with some paperwork.
But in those things, there is more than meets the eye. God is hidden and at work in the midst of the work we do. God is working through us in those places and serving those around us. In a mysterious way, God is actually doing something miraculous in the ordinary places of our vocation.
"God himself will milk the cows through him whose vocation that is.” – Martin Luther
God works in us. God works through us. And God works with us in the work we do. As we love our neighbor within the vocations that God has given us, we are participating in the miraculous daily work as God provides “daily bread” to our neighbor.