Innocent Bystanders

When good things in life happen unexpectedly, people sometimes describe what occurred by saying “I was just in the right place at the right time.” When bad things happen unexpectedly, people sometimes describe what occurred by saying “I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.” In both cases, these people could be referred to as ‘innocent bystanders.’

Either person was just ‘standing-by’ when something happened. They were innocent. The one to whom something ‘good’ happened didn’t do anything to cause the ‘good’. The one to whom the ‘bad’ happened didn’t do anything to cause the ‘bad.’

History is filled with people who we could call ‘Innocent Bystanders.’ Noah was an innocent bystander. He is minding his own business, tending to his family and tending to life, when out of the blue God calls him to spend 100 years building an ark. People made fun of him and he surely took brunt of the ridicule of his neighbors. He was just standing by doing life when he was brought into world history.

Amos was a shepherd and a fig farmer when God spoke to him and called him to be a prophet. He was an ordinary man, living an ordinary life, minding his own business when God called him and for the next 10 years he was thrust into the center of history. 3500 years later people all around the world read an Old Testament book called Amos. The book of Amos is the record of an Innocent Bystander who was drug into history.

The story that has been told and retold at Christmas time for 100’s of years is filled with Innocent Bystanders. Over the next few weeks we are going to take a look at Innocent Bystanders from the Christmas story and then draw some lessons about how each of us, at one time or another, are ‘minding our own business’ when life jumps out from behind a bush, takes us by surprise, and we travel down a road that we were not expecting.

How will we respond to life’s curveballs? What are the fears we must overcome? What are the faith lessons that we will come face to face with? There are countless questions, lessons and applications found in the Christmas story.

This Christmas, bring your family and friends with you to uncover life from the stories of ‘Innocent Bystanders.’