The Gift of Oddness
Odd- Strange or unusual in appearance, behavior, not part of the regular usual or required
Story about Dan
The his forth grade class every once in a while they would have dancing and the boys and the girls would line up on opposite sides of the class and then the boys would have to chose the girl that they would want to be dancing partners with. Well we all know how kids are that age you want to pick someone that is cute and you want to be picked by some one that is cute. There was one girl in the class named Mary who always got picked last because she was one of those girls that that was and goofy she had bad hair and sometimes smelled kind of funny, she wasn’t pretty or smart and she was kind of heavy I guess you could have said she was odd.
Well one day the teacher who happened to go to Dan’s church pull him aside right before it was time to chose dancing partners and said “Dan I want you to chose Mary to be you partner because that is the thing that Jesus would do.” So it was time to chose partners and Dan got to chose first and he could have picked any of the pretty, smart, skinny, girls there but when his teacher said “Dan who do you chose first” Dan responded, “I chose Mary.”
Dan could have chosen any other girl in the whole class to be his partner be he chose Mary in all of her Oddness.
Jesus has done the same thing for us in all of our oddness he chose us.
1. John 2:1-10 Water into wine
Jesus is at a wedding and the people who were hosting the wedding ran out of the most important drink they ran out of the wine.
Jesus’ mom comes over and tells him of how bad this is that they have ran out of wine and that he should do something. Then Jesus’ mom says to all of the servants that were there she said do what ever he tells you to do.
Close to where they were there were 6 stones water jars which held close to 20 to 30 gallons of water. The Bible says that they were used for ceremonial washing now for the strict Jewish laws they were considered unclean just by touching things of everyday life. Anything that you touched would make you unclean. And then they would pour water over there hands into these jar and then they were clean.
Now we see Jesus using these things that were filled with things that were considered to be unclean and fills them with water making the water unclean. This had to of odd to the people that were helping Jesus filling all of these jars. They were probably thinking what on earth is He doing with these unclean jars
After the jars are filled us Jesus tells one of the servants to take some out and take it to the master of the house. And after the master of the house has some he says “Usually you bring out the best wine first and the worst last but you have saved the best until the very end.”
It was odd for Jesus to chose those big jars that were considered unclean but that is what he chose to us them in all of there oddness. Jesus does the same thing for although we are unclean Jesus chose to come to us in all of our oddness and fill us up.
Do we know why Christianity is called the “Good News” the reason is it is an equal opportunity faith open to all. Jesus believed that a Messiah would find a place for those who had no place and use those who where us less.
Jesus had a place for us even in our oddness.
2. Romans 12:2
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is His Good, Pleasing, and Perfect will.
After we have found our place with Jesus in all of our oddness we can no longer conform to the pattern of this world. What is the pattern of this world?
The pattern of the world is sameness to go with the flow and to do what everyone else is doing be we can no longer be conformed to the sameness of the world.
As Christians 1 Peter 2:11 tells us that we are aliens we are the odd ones and strange ones the misfits, the outsiders, the incompatibles that are not shaped by the worlds sameness. Oddness is a gift that God gives life and shape it is the consequence of following the one who made us unique, different, and in His image.
How many times do we find ourselves conforming to all of the sameness around us and not embracing the oddness that we have in Him?
Story about Norman
It came time for Norman’s class to do there spring play and the teacher old all of the students that the years plays would be Cinderella. So all of the kids quickly put in all of their requests for part Cinderella, the prince, the wicked step mother, so after giving out all of the part and even making so up all of the students had a part except for Norman.
So the teacher said Norman all of the parts are taken so what would you like do and Norman said I will be the Pig and the teacher said there is no pig in Cinderella and Norman said there is now.
So on the big night of the show all the kid showed up in all of the fancy costumes and Norman came dressed up as a pig and in the show Norman’s pig followed Cinderella around everywhere and acted as she acted. And when it came time for the end when the Prince kissed Cinderella Norman the pig started going hysterical running around and barking at the top of his lung.
The teacher thought that it was a sure failure but when the kids went out for the curtain call Norman’s pig got the only standing ovation.
Conclusion
Are we going to forced to conform to the sameness of the world because of what all of the people around us say we should or are we going to be like Norman and except our place in Him and embrace the Oddness that we have in him and show his love to the world.
