The average person in North America sees somewhere between 4,000 and 10,000 advertisements daily. For comparison in the 1970’s that number was about 500-1,600 per day and mainly due to TV, radio or newspapers. Today, digital media is everpresent. If you're an average smartphone user - you check your phone 144 times a day providing constant and countless opportunities for ads to reach you.
In this week's Nativity Story video, the Angel Gabriel is discouraged. He remembers the glory days when angels lit up the skies and the world stopped to listen. When shepherds fell on their faces in fear and wonder. When even the wisest men would drop everything and follow a star across continents.
But now? The family in the house is too busy scrolling through social media, shopping online and building huge Christmas To-Do Lists. Gabriel watches them race past the nativity scene in their front yard without so much as a glance. He says "They couldn't hear an announcement from God even if I destroyed their Wi-Fi router.”
Gabriel is ready to give up but then Mary steps in with wisdom - God's good news still breaks through — not always in the big, flashy, Instagram-worthy moments, but often in the quiet, overlooked ones. The moments we might run past or dismiss as ordinary are often ready to deliver the extraordinary. She closes with her mic-drop line - “Jesus doesn't need a spotlight. He only needs a manger."
