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The ordinary is marvelous (Vol 1 No 28)

When we ponder on the Advent story,

When we contemplate the wondrous birth,

Let us sing of miracle and glory,

Bursting through our hist’ry here on earth.

Let us also prize the common,

That which happens ev’rywhere and often.

For, although each human birth is special,

It is also very commonplace.

Jesus born in Bethlehem, quite normal;

Numbered with us in the human race;

Born as us, dependent child.

Treasured infant, gently meek and mild.

Nazareth, where everybody knew him,

Where he learned an ordinary trade,

There they spurned him.  Jesus was a victim;

Treated like a wilful renegade.

Sorrow, pain, he knew so well;

Suffered in his agonising hell.

Joy, despair, adversity and pleasure;

Nothing strange about this Jewish life.

Yet in him is something that we treasure,

He has shared our happiness and strife.

God in Christ has friend and foe.

God involved in everything we know.

Then  in death, horrific yet quite common

For those judged committing heinous crime,

Jesus shared extremes of our condition;

Lived and felt in every age and clime.

Jesus walked our human way;

Tested, tried. He did not back away.  

From the stable to the cross of sorrow,

He uncovers God in everything.  

There he is - an ordinary hero.

Yet, the One proclaimed as Lord and King. 

Speck upon our history’s page,

Yet revered in every single age.

So we treasure all the common graces,

Live each day as precious and unique.

God is present at all times and places,

On the plains, as on the mountain peak.

Plain yet wondrous, every hour,

God, within, enriches us with power.

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