“Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
In today’s world we love to document the mundane moments. Social media is replete with GRWM (get ready with me) videos, pictures of a messy house, or trips to the grocery store. And as silly as it sounds to document these, we (I?) admittedly can get sucked into watching someone film themselves walking the aisles of Trader Joe’s. I can’t really explain why. This is not the kind of content that makes the history books. However, I recently stumbled upon a classroom activity that focused on Louis XIV’s daily routine. The “Sun King” of France, who built the Palace of Versailles, had an elaborate wake up ceremony called the levee. Throughout the day, nobles would compete to have different roles in his routine, like getting to hand him his shoes as he dressed. His only alone time was lunch. One could find him staring out a certain window into his gardens. Though Louis didn’t have the luxury of documenting his day on Tik Tok, my students found his whole routine rather amusing as well.
In reading through the gospels, there is a tension of curiosity and completion to me surrounding the life of Christ. John says in our verses today that Jesus did many more things than what is written in the Bible. My children embodied this curiosity well ex: Did Jesus have the stomach bug? It can be fun to ponder all the other things that must have happened in Jesus’ 30+ years of life as he was fully God and fully man. However, we can feel a sense of completion in scripture in that what has been recorded and canonized was done so in order that we may believe and have life through him. While we have no documentation of His daily routines, we can pick up from the gospels that he valued alone time to pray (Matthew 14:23) yet welcomed disruptions in His days to serve the needs of others (Matthew 19:14). We don’t know his typical sleep schedule or what illnesses he contracted while on Earth (my kids really fixated on this), but we know he rested when he needed to rest (Mark 4:38) and chose to forgo sleep when needed as well (Mark 14:34)
Christ’s life was filled with moments that were not recorded in the gospel accounts, but the love and devotion to others and to his heavenly Father in each moment built a foundation for which people were watching and listening. As we consider the entirety of the life of Jesus through the picture we are given in the gospel, I would submit to you that the mundane in our lives carry immense value. I do not mean in the sense that everyone must know what we are doing at all times. Rather, those moments that feel stagnant or unimportant may be the fertile ground God uses to sanctify us.
Anne
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