Three wise women … Mary, Elizabeth and Anna. All three played a major role in their own way in the Christmas story and all 3 were faithful followers of God who lived out their faith in quite remarkable ways.
We often make the mistake of making spiritual superheroes out of people when they are mentioned positively in the Bible. While it is good to admire and learn from them, it can also prove to be unhelpful if we see them as above and beyond us - as living life and faith in a way we could certainly never attain to.
For God seems to delight in taking quite unremarkable people and using them in remarkable ways!
This is especially true in the case of our 3 wise women. What we should never forget is that all 3 of these women would have been considered to be ‘below average’ by the society of their day.
None of them would have been considered very highly – they were all ‘little’ people in a way. Firstly, because all women were treated like second class citizens with very few rights. They were thought of as being spiritually, emotionally and intellectually inferior to men (unfortunately this is a misguided bias that lives on in many sections of our global society).
Secondly, they were all women with issues. Mary was unmarried and pregnant, in fact under the customs and rules of the day she was fortunate not to have been stoned for this. Elizabeth was married, but had long been infertile (infertility was seen as a curse for sin and was ALWAYS considered to be the women’s fault). While, Anna was an elderly widow (any rights and privileges a woman had were centred upon her husband).
So by the standards of the day, all 3 of these women were considered less, not more, when it came to faith and spirituality.
Have you ever put yourself down by thinking that you were too ordinary, or not gifted enough, to be used by God?
Think again.
God seems to delight in taking quite unremarkable people and using them in remarkable ways!
What might this mean for you?
PRAY AS YOU GO
Almighty God, you who are the King of the Universe, chose to be born into the dust and dirt of a stable. Help us to remember that you have always chosen to use very ordinary people to bring glory to you. Bless us with the courageous imagination and faith we need to perceive how you might begin to use us. Amen.
FOCUS VERSE
Luke 2. 36-40
There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.
When Joseph and Mary had done everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.