Feeling Overlooked? (Nurture Notes 002)

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Welcome to this week’s Nurture Note as we continue our exploration of Luke’s gospel. If you missed last week’s where we broke down chapter one, you can click here.

Luke 2:14 reads, ​​“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

While hearing these words might often be reserved for church services at Christmas, they struck me anew whilst I was preparing for this message. The angels appear to the shepherds - men doing manual work, out in the fields amongst the animals - by all intents and purposes, they weren’t anyone special by society’s standards. And yet the angel calls them favoured.

Do you ever feel like you’re missing the mark somehow? As you observe everyone on social media doing their ‘thing’, do you wonder if you somehow missed the memo regarding what it means to be measured as successful by the world’s standards? 

The good news is that those aren’t the standards we’re meant to be measured by. In fact, in 1 Peter 2:9, we’re even called a ‘peculiar people’. I wonder if those shepherds felt peculiar at all ‘watching their flocks by night’ day in and day out? And I wonder too how they must have felt when the entirety of their reality changed in an instant as Jesus was revealed to them.

There’s significance in the shepherds.

There’s significance in the angels making Jesus’ presence known to them, just as there was significance in the mother of Jesus being a ‘regular’ Jewish teenager whom no one really knew anything about until that very moment.

But God knew.

Just like God knows you and knows of your labours of love, be they at work, amongst your family, within your church or a mixture of all of the above and more.

Much like this incredible appearing happens in and amongst the ordinary for the shepherds, so too can God showing up in our lives happen in the midst of the mundane. Look for glimmers of his grace today.

Something else I find striking about Luke 2 is Simeon and Anna - their devout faith, and also their extraordinarily defined purpose.

We’re told in verse 25 that ‘the Holy Spirit was on him’ and then in verse 26 that ‘It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.’ Pause there for a moment and just imagine that level of closeness with the Lord and also that amount of understanding as to what you’re here for and how you’ll know it’s been accomplished.

Simeon had all of this and yet was strikes me most is that closeness - that abiding. In verse 27 it says ‘Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts’. It was like even then, despite all of the wisdom and understanding he’d no doubt amassed, he only moved when he was nudged to do so by the Holy Spirit, as opposed to leaning on his own understanding.

We then see Anna who, much like Simeon, was completely devout in her worship of God. We see in verse 37 that she ‘never left the temple’. She took one glance at Jesus (see verse 38), and immediately began thanking and praising God and then began prophesying - speaking to the redemption his coming would bring - to all who would listen.

Both Anna and Simeon were clear as to what they were called to do as they carried out their calling propelled by the Holy Spirit. I think there’s so much wisdom we get there, just from their lived example. 

What is God calling you to do for such a time as this? How boldly are you walking it out at the moment? Remember, we can ask God for boldness if that’s where we’re finding ourselves stuck.

The last thing I’d like to draw out of this passage for today is Mary’s response to all that was happening around her. We spent a lot of time focusing on her last week of course as we reflected on the moment she was called to bring Jesus into the world.

However, now that this was happening around her (by the time we get to chapter 2), it’s interesting to note her response. 

In verse 19, once the shepherds have told her (and anyone else who’d listen) all that had been told of them about Jesus, we read that Mary ‘treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart’. And then, in verse 51 when Mary and Joseph find Jesus in the temple a few years later sitting, listening and asking questions in the temple courts and he questions why they’ve been so anxiously searching for him, it reads that she ‘treasured all these things in her heart.’

Who her son would be, what he would do, how the message of angel Gabriel would was becoming clear in front of her very eyes - there was most certainly a lot to ponder for Mary. All of this would also give her a lot to react to and to shout about, wouldn’t it? And yet, Mary’s response was reflective and calm. This wasn’t passive - as I don’t doubt that this pondering and reflecting took a lot out of her mentally and emotionally. And yet it wasn’t something which was shouted about.

This is definitely something we can think about as it pertains to our own lives isn’t it? How much we store up and dwell on what God’s given us before we start shouting about it. What might this example of Mary’s mean for you today?

As ever, we’re exploring these concepts more deeply as we dwell on the passage with daily journal prompts, a private podcast and a group chat over in Rooted Rhythms. Not a member yet? Why not?! There’s so much for you to sink your teeth into - not in a way which means you’re doing more, instead, in a way which means you’re more grounded and available for growth. Click HERE to learn more. I’d love to see you on the inside.

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Over in Rooted Rhythms, which is my member’s only space where we continue to chew over the week’s passage with daily journal prompts, a private podcast and an exclusive group chat community, we’re going to be exploring what it means to respond to God’s presence in the midst of the every day, as well as the discipline of carrying calling and commission before shouting about it. To become a member for just £7 ($9.50) a month, click HERE.

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