大象传媒

Yesterday morning, the world lost one of the greatest spiritual and moral giants of our age. Desmond Tutu - champion of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa and all injustice around the world 鈥� died. If ever someone lived their life well, then this听giggling and playful, yet听passionate and fearless听man did.

鈥淚f there is one thing that听enrages me鈥�, he once said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 to see the powerful inflict suffering on so-called ordinary people 鈥� in my theology nobody is ordinary.鈥�

The most defining moment of his life, he would often explain, was when he was about nine years old.

In the days of apartheid in South Africa, when a black person met a white person while walking on a footpath, the black person was expected to step into the gutter to allow the white person to pass, and nod their head as a gesture of respect. But this day, before a young Tutu and his mother could do what was required, as he passed them, a tall white priest in a black cassock 鈥� Rev. Trevor Huddleston 鈥� stepped off the pavement and tipped his hat in a gesture of respect to them!

This unexpected encounter blew Tutu鈥檚 mind, he said. 鈥淚 decided there and then that I wanted to be a priest too. We are all created in the image of God." "All. All鈥�, he鈥檚 repeat that word over and over again.

听

In fact, this revolutionary principle 鈥� that every person is of infinite value, because they all are created in the image of God - sits at the very heart of the Christmas story itself. Though often depicted in 鈥楳adonna and child鈥� paintings as听serene and sophisticated,听dressed in very expensive blue silk robes,听in truth Mary 鈥� the mother of Jesus - was a powerless and poor teenager, living in first century Palestine, under a ruthless Roman dictatorship.听 But, similar to Desmond, Mary was surprised by an unexpected and mind-blowing encounter 鈥� hers with a mysterious angel. And, in a similar way to Tutu, her response was听鈥淚 am the Lord鈥檚 servant, may your word to me be fulfilled.鈥�

So, it seems to me that it鈥檚 a habit of听God to choose to work in partnership with 鈥榮o-called ordinary people鈥� to achieve 鈥榚xtra-ordinary鈥� things; people like Desmond Tutu, people like Trevor Huddleston, people like Mary 鈥� people like us. In fact, as Tutu would have put it himself, actually us!