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.