Arriving in Style

When I was in college I had a job through a county program watching special needs children.  Parents of autistic and hyperactive children have a very hard time finding sitters.  So the county hired some sitters, provided training and filled the need.  One family that I became acquainted with during this time was hiring a limousine to take them around places on one of their birthdays.  They were really poor and it seemed pretty extravagant to me at the time.  But for once they wanted to go in style.

 

Let's face it, extravagance can be fun.   We see what's out there and dip or toes in the water. For some people though, extravagance is just a way of life.   In Calumet, Michigan there is a mansion that you can tour that was once owned by one of the miner barons.  Everything about it is over the top and excessive.  In one room, in place of wall paper the walls were covered with hand painted albino elephant skin.  I can't even wrap my head around how you come to the conclusion that what this room needs is the hide from albino elephants.  

While most of us don't live lives to be featured on "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous", we do have standards.  We don't buy that brand, go to that restaurant, stay at that motel, go in that neighborhood.  Me too.  And for the most part we have good reasons for this.  We have experience that tells us the other isn't worth it.  It still costs money and it won't be very good.  I think that we need to watch though that we don't fall into the trap of thinking "a person like would never go to a place like that"  Is it a question of preference or do we think that the other is somehow beneath us.

Watch this clip from Pastor Mike.

There is an expression, "Were you born in a barn?" which I often hear used when someone leaves a door open, but is sometimes used to call someone a hic, a redneck or uncultured.  For Jesus, the answer would be a resounding, "Yes.  I was born in a barn." He wasn't too good for it.  Many of the greats in the Bible come from humble beginning.  David was born in the home of shepherds.  Moses was born in the home of slaves and abandoned in a river.  And of course Jesus himself was born in a barn.  

God isn't concerned about where we come from only where we are going and that is truly extravagant.