As we wrap up 2019, I’ve been reflecting on what I’ve learned this year. It has been a very big year for me. I started a graduate program to get my master’s in teaching and a teaching credential so I can teach high school English. Being in the classroom, I hear all about the day-to-day lives of my students. I’ve consoled crying students, cheered loudly for their successes, and listened to them struggle through figuring out who they want to become.

School, with its repetition, can make days blend together. I see the same faces and teach the same lesson multiple times. It is in the ordinariness of these school bells I’ve learned more and more about the love of Jesus.

The Jews expected the Messiah to come and overthrow the government, giving them back what they thought they were owed. At Christmas, we remember that Jesus came simply—to a manger in a stable to a normal woman. Yet, in that ordinariness came our rescue. Rather than demanding political power, Jesus came to live among us and make a way for us to be right with God.

Christmas, and my newfound position in the classroom, reminds me that while love isn’t always flashy, it is transformative. So, when I hear the bell ring and a new group of students walk through the door, I know that I can love them just as Jesus loved me by being present with them. As I care for them, listen to them, and help bear their burdens, the Lord lives and moves with me.  

When we love others like Jesus loves us, even the ordinary becomes divine.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.

1 Corinthians 13:13

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

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Rachael Heinsen is a recent graduate of UCI with a degree in English.  She loves hiking, reading, and all things chocolate. Rachael feels called to higher education and is excited for all Jesus has for her.