Beautiful Things Out of the Dust

Have you ever wondered what it would be like if you were Mary? Just an average teenage girl living an ordinary life. What would your reaction be if an angel had come to you and told you that you had been chosen by God to bear His Son?

God could've chosen someone completely different to bear His Son. He could've chosen a place other than the small town of Bethlehem to be the birth place of Jesus. But he didn't.

"We must remember that Mary wasn’t someone of particular significance or importance in Nazareth. She was no daughter of privilege, no sister of success, no cousin to royalty. She was just a kid—a young woman betrothed to a young man named Joseph. An ordinary woman expecting to live an ordinary life. But God had other plans."
~Ross Parsley

It's obvious that God doesn't call the qualified. He seems to pull more for the underdogs to do great things for His Kingdom. Of course, he could've had His Son delivered in the most beautiful, extravagant way if he wanted. Yet he didn't.

That thought alone should be encouraging for everyone who has felt worthless, everyone who has felt as if they will never measure up to anything in life. God has something beautiful in store for us.

God creates beautiful things out of the dust, out of the average, out of the ordinary or forgotten.

Remember the promise that God has given you. Have faith that He will bring it into fruition, despite your past and despite the way things may look right now. God makes beautiful things out of the dust, not out of what is already beautiful. 

"Abraham didn’t focus on his own impotence and say, 'It’s hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could never father a child.' Nor did he survey Sarah’s decades of infertility and give up. He didn’t tiptoe around God’s promise asking cautiously skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God, sure that God would make good on what he had said. That’s why it is said, 'Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him right' But it’s not just Abraham; it’s also us! The same thing gets said about us when we embrace and believe the One who brought Jesus to life when the conditions were equally hopeless." 

~Romans 4:19-25

God has great things in store for you, and He can use you. Nothing can keep you from God's promises—not your circumstances, past, personality, education, etc. God doesn't choose us based on those things.

You'll find proof all throughout the Bible that God doesn't call the qualified. Think about it: Moses stuttered. David was just a teenage boy. Both Sarah and Elizabeth were too old to have a baby. Mary was a virgin. Gideon was cowardly. Jacob was a thief. David had an affair and was a murderer. Noah was a drunk. Zaccheus was too short. Joseph was abused. Rahab was a prostitute.

When we go out and do the things He has called us to do, it won't be because of us or through our own strength. It'll be God's spirit working inside of us.

"The angel told Mary that she would conceive without knowing a man. In other words, God was saying it could happen through supernatural means. It can happen without the bank loaning you the money. It can happen without having the right education. It can happen in spite of your past. It can happen despite what the critics are telling you. With God, all things are possible."
~Joel Osteen

If you think your life has been too dirty, or things look too messed up right now, do as Abraham did and plunge into God's promise. Have faith, keeping in mind that God made you out of dust. Surely he can make something beautiful out of your life as well.

"Jesus came to Mary and Joseph as He comes to us. In seasons of great pain, despair, and disappointment, He comes. Just when you're at the end of yourself, He comes. He appears at just the right moment—never early, but always at the right time. And it is at this moment that you realize it's not the end. It's just the beginning."

~Ross Parsley