Bathing-Suit Shopping and Other Acts of Worship

Christmas is coming, which has me thinking about the Incarnation and what it means for me today. The Incarnation is wondrous; that God so loved us, that He would demonstrate it by sending Jesus to be right here with us. Jesus didn’t float in on a cloud; His vulnerable, gritty communion with humanity began in his teenage mother’s womb (Matthew 1:23). Our Lord was nourished by what Mary ate, comforted by her voice, lulled to sleep by her movements.

Christmas is coming, which has me thinking about the Incarnation and what it means for me today. The Incarnation is wondrous; that God so loved us, that He would demonstrate it by sending Jesus to be right here with us. Jesus didn’t float in on a cloud; His vulnerable, gritty communion with humanity began in his teenage mother’s womb (Matthew 1:23). Our Lord was nourished by what Mary ate, comforted by her voice, lulled to sleep by her movements.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at God's associating the physical with the spiritual, though, since the Lord has gotten His hands dirty for our sake from the very beginning. Soil and His word resulted in mankind, after all. The temple’s odor must have included a mix of fresh bread, incense, and blood, echoing with the sounds of bleating and prayer.

When Jesus walked the earth, His miracles and parables made the mundane holy; bread and wine were His body and blood (Matthew 26:26-29); His writing on the ground was a woman’s covering and a rebuke to accusers (John 8:6, 8); His salve to restore sight was spit (Mark 8:23).

So often, I am prone to relegating worship and spirituality to the cerebral and abstract, or to a particular day of the week. The Incarnation, however, dares me to have God’s Word come alive in my life. I wonder if part of Mary’s worship involved her everyday choices to rest, eat, and care for herself in deference to God’s choice to uniquely bless her.

During this Advent I am seeking to find new ways to display faith and worship in everyday life. Here are some ways that I attempt to make the mundane, holy (don't forget to hover your mouse over the verses in order to read them):

• Going bathing suit shopping though I'm no supermodel: James 4:10 (hee, hee), Psalm 139:13-14
• Nursing with a glad heart at 1 am: Psalm 127:3
• Not responding to the inflammatory Facebook status or email: James 3:5-6; Proverbs 15:4; Ephesians 4:29 (I need LOTS of help with this one)
• Keeping my hair big and fragrant and my legs smooth (even in winter): 1 Corinthians 7:4
• Guerilla giving (anonymous gifts): Matthew 6:1-4, 2 Corinthians 9:7
• Basking in the sight of my husband playing with my son when I “should” be doing something else: Ecclesiastes 3:12-13
• Turning the ringer off at 9 pm, and putting the laptop away after 10 pm: Psalm 127:2
• Trying not to take it personally when they don’t replace the toilet paper or squeeze the toothpaste “correctly” or leave dishes in the sink when the dishwasher is soooo close…again: 1 Peter 4:8-10
• Curbing my desire to consistently complain to others about the coworker who hurt my feelings: Proverbs 17:9

What are some ways that God’s Word is incarnated in your life? How do you make the mundane holy?