Zephaniah 3:12-13a
But I will leave as a remnant in your midst a people humble and lowly, Who shall take refuge in the name of the LORD—the remnant of Israel.
Hi. My name is Abby and I've never seen a Star Wars movie from start to finish. I was born at the wrong time, to the wrong parents and back then at least, was the wrong gender to have the films shown to me. So now, here I am with two little wannabe-Jedi Knights (or more likely, wannabe-stormtroopers) and I don't know much about these movies past the main characters' names. So last night I watched about 45 minutes of the last movie - what was it, episode 7? The one with the girl and the little ball guy - BB8. There is a scene where the girl, Ray/Rae (spelling doesn't count in the future), is trying to rescue a Stormtrooper who has gone rogue. He's caught in the tentacles of this octopus-type thing that was being transported on the Millennium Falcon, or at least I think that's what was going on; I was packing lunches.
So the girl hits a button to make a door close right as the octopus thingy was going through and it chopped off his tentacle and freed the rogue stormtrooper guy. When she catches up to him he tells her about the door closing and she makes some comment like, yeah, you're lucky. She doesn't take time to tell him that's it's thanks to her that he's alive and how she came up with the great idea. They had a bigger mission and wanted to get to it. The movie had already set her up to be a "good guy" but in that scene I noticed that she was more than a typical good guy, she was humble.
In today's first reading, we hear of the prophecy that Jerusalem will be destroyed. All that will remain are the humble and lowly. This scene from Star Wars is a good example of why humility is important - because the humble recognize the bigger picture, they know what's important. It's not about bringing attention to themselves or making the biggest splash. It's about doing what needs to be done for the greater mission. In Ray/Rae's case, defeating the Dark Side, or whatever. In our case, glorifying God. Yet, our world today tells us the opposite: Be strong, smart, a go-getter. That's why Advent is so awesome. It puts in our faces multiple times a day the greatest image of humility. The Savior, the King was brought into the world in a manger, around dirty, smelly animals. It wasn't about the glory of a royal birth - it was the bigger picture, the greater mission. Teaching the world that God is love and to love means to lower ourselves and serve one another. Don't let this Advent reminder fall on deaf ears or blind eyes - allow it to transform your heart starting today.
