“Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me.”

— Matthew 21:2

There is a little donkey named Rosey where my daughter rides horses. Rosey lives in a large enclosure with a herd of ponies. She loves to come to the fence to get scratches from all of the kids and adults who walk by. Every once in a while she cries out as only a donkey can. You can hear her from a distance. Once a year she is taken out and fitted with a pack to parade around with a man dressed up as an 1849 miner searching for gold. Sometimes she follows him well, and other times she stops and refuses to move. She is a donkey, after all.

Sometimes I imagine Jesus riding on her. It’s not what people would have expected. They’d expect a king to ride majestically on a horse. And a donkey might go where it is directed, but it also might not.

The donkey in Jesus’ story, however, played an important part in communicating Jesus’ purpose and who he was. He came to be a humble servant, showing that as the true King over all things, he came to show his love and care for us by dying to save us.

We play important parts in the Lord’s great story too. We don’t need to be wealthy rulers or important leaders. We just need to be who God created us to be. God has a role and a plan for us in his story. And he will use us as he sees fit.

God, thank you for choosing me and giving me a role to play in your story for the world. Help me to know that role, and help me live into it more and more each day. For Jesus’ sake, Amen.