I thought I’d post excerpts of an article by Russell E. Gehrlein, which contains some reflections to help us consider how God’s purpose connects to our work as we continue to prepare our hearts to remember the birth of Jesus.
First, Christmas is all about God sending us the best gift of all – His Son. Jesus was the promised Messiah who fulfilled OT prophecies and was a perfect prophet, priest, and king. Jesus’ coming to Earth in human form also demonstrated that God places value on the physical world. As a man, Jesus could truly be “Immanuel – God with us”. He touched, healed, and shed real tears.
Knowing all this helps us to understand that the sacred-secular divide is based on a false assumption that the spiritual world is of greater priority to God than the physical creation. Tom Nelson, in Work Matters, observes, “Working with his hands day in and day out in a carpentry shop was not below Jesus. Jesus did not see his carpentry work as mundane or meaningless, for it was the work his Father had called him to do.” Because Jesus did the work, it was both excellent and sacred. As Jesus’s disciples, the work we do with a spirit of excellence is also sacred.
When I reflect on the fact that Jesus left His Spirit to manifest his presence in those of us who are His true followers, I can be physically present with people and work with my hands, heart, and mind to meet the various needs of the people who God has divinely placed around me. The Holy Spirit’s sanctifying power changes me as a worker. Plus, it enables me as a new creature in Christ to demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit which blesses others and gives glory to the Gardener.
Secondly, in the birth narratives of Jesus found in the first few chapters of Matthew’s and Luke’s Gospel, we discover a large supporting cast of workers of various kinds. We see Joseph the carpenter. We see astrologers from the east who traveled afar. We see shepherds pulling the night shift. God the Father revealed himself to each of them through angels and celestial signs above, announcing the birth of his Son…
According to Martin Luther, God is present in everyone’s ordinary work, showing its intrinsic value. Gustav Wingren, in Luther on Vocation indicates that Luther concluded: “With persons as his ‘hands’ or ‘coworkers,’ God gives his gifts through the earthly vocations, toward man’s life on earth…
If God is indeed present with the worker as he or she works, and if God is working through the worker to do a job that He wants done in the world, then all work is valuable. We can then conclude that all workers are valued by God and should be valued by us.
God continues to meet our needs and the needs of our families, especially during the holidays, through the hard work of part-time and seasonal retail, food service, and postal workers, just to name a few. If God works through these ordinary workers, and he does, we can be grateful customers, treating all workers (especially those who serve in humble positions) with respect, intentionally letting them know with kind words and actions that they are a blessing to us.
Third, I learned a long time ago that God divinely places his children where He wants us to be for His purposes. One of those purposes is to work closely with people, many of whom we would not meet at church. And because God is present with us, we may be the only Jesus they see. For example,… (when) we suffer alongside others, we can earn their respect and the right to speak into their lives. When we choose to rejoice in these trials at work, and display the hope we have in Christ, this may open up a door to minister to them in a deeper way and point them to Jesus.
Be encouraged. God is indeed present in our labor. He will use you as you are present with others in their labors.
Christ in us the hope of glory!
Mark Ng
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