Unexpected Packaging

Sometimes, no matter how hard I try, I can’t find what I’m looking for at the grocery store.

Usually, the item I’m looking for was there the whole time—right under my nose.

The hangup: my mental picture of its packaging and/or location in the store.

I walk by the thing I’m looking for multiple times but just can’t see it.

The item is there, by my mind isn’t open to the idea that THIS is the place or the packaging for it.

When Jesus came, people were looking for the Messiah.

They were looking for the Messiah and they had a mental picture of this Messiah’s packaging…

But He came as a baby. He wasn’t born in the capital city to a royal family.

He didn’t have a national or political agenda.

He colored outside the religious lines.

He hung out with the wrong people.

Many were blinded by the unexpected packaging.

They scoffed, “He’s just a carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon. And his sisters live right here among us.” They were deeply offended and refused to believe in him. (Mark 6.3 NLT)

When he was a baby, his parents brought him to the temple to be dedicated.

At the temple, two older folks—Simeon and Anna, recognized baby Jesus as the Messiah.

There’s no way Simeon and Anna could have ever pictured the Messiah coming the way he did.

Yet, they recognized Him. They knew God was among them.

I don’t want to miss God’s work today because my mental picture of how things should work frame Him completely out of the picture.

I want to be like Simeon and Anna.

I want to recognize God—his work, his voice, his presence… even in unexpected packaging.