Soli Deo Gloria

Matthew 1:19 ESV

And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.

Matthew 13:55 ESV

Is not this the carpenter’s son?...

Walking to church on the morning of Christmas Eve, I noticed something peculiar as I turned the corner from the alley to the street to go up to church. The trash cans were at the side of the street. This made me reflect that my normal trash day is Tuesday (Christmas this year). Looking down the street a little further I noticed most had trash next to the curb. The reality of my situation preparing for more Christmas related trash than I wanted to deal with all week, I quickly chose to thank God for his provision of mindful neighbors drop my bag at church and walk home to put my trash to the curb. I have always been impressed with the diligence of the garbage men/women in Lincoln, often being completely shocked that they didn’t “take the day” after Christmas or another holiday when it fell on the weekend.

                Even though I have very fond memories, as a child, of loading up the truck with my dad and brother and going out to the dump and throwing the trash over the side into the pit, it is a great blessing to me, as an adult, to not have to worry about taking my trash out to the transfer station. I do not know the heart of those that pick up my trash, yet I know that “what ever you do, do it as unto the lord” also applies to the removal of trash from the curb. As the reformers noted that even the most menial of jobs when done to the Lord is transformed into the greatest acts of worship. How many of us really believe this? That there is no hierarchy of Labor in the kingdom. God has given to each of us varying gifts and abilities that he knows and no other, can judge, but to which we are accountable to use for his glory, even when helping our neighbors with a dirty smelly job, that isn’t appreciated.

                Turn the pages of scripture to the day of Christmas we meet an unheralded man. Joseph, a simple carpenter, with a wife and family. As the response from his neighbors at Nazareth notes, he wasn’t anything to which they expected greatness to come from. He was a simple good man. He worked hard and let God get the glory. Since, after the birth story we hear nothing from him or about him, we must assume that he wasn’t even given life to watch the events that would lead to the salvation of Israel and all the world. He was a man who God deemed worthy to raise God’s only son as his own for a short time, an honor no other man received. It was simple life fleeing from tyrants and trying to scrape out a living for a budding young family to live on. Done to the glory of God, it was the highest act of worship. It is easy for us to fall into the satanic trap of “collecting a paycheck”. In the Christian life there is no such thing as “just” anything. Living a simple life, doing jobs other can’t or don’t want to, raising a family, with no hope of earthly acclaim or reward, is the testimony of the man whom God gave his son to raise. Can we do these things like him? For the glory of God, let us worship the king, raised in a carpenter’s home, as we do, whatever we do, “to the glory of God”.

Coram Deo