scandal.

i love the turmoil in the story of Jesus' birth. Most of us know the Christmas story; lovely couple, beautiful baby in a manger with smiling animals. My favorite part is what happens before all that. Mary, the teenager is pregnant and not even married yet. many of us have heard this angle of the story but i never get tired of it.

faith is at the center of the scandal. mary is visited by an angel and told she will have a child, the same child in Isaiah's prophesy, and he will be the savior of the world. as a young girl she believes and trusts that God will use her. she has great faith in her Lord. "I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. Joseph had the same attitude, though both were a little skeptical at first, faith was the center.

I wish we knew more about their families or the people of the town. all we can do is speculate. I assume, and this is just my opinion, that people talked about the poorly, judged them, mary especially. But we dont know so theres no sense over-thinking it.

what we do know, is that God is capable of calling his people to ANYTHING. In my own life i have been all over the place doing weird things because i felt God wanted me to. Sounds a bit odd to someone who doesn't have a personal relationship with Christ, but anyone who has felt a call to do something, knows what im talking about. Whether it is talking to a random strander or buying someone a meal, or as big as uprooting your life and job to seek out HIS plan from your life.

The gospel(the story of Jesus and what it drives us to) doesn't always make sense. One of my favorite examples of this is martyrs, those who die for their faith. There is a famous line from a wheaton grad(yeah i mentioned wheaton, i LOVE it) who died in the jungles of Ecuador he said to his son while reaching out to a violent destructive people group. He and his friends were trying to make friends and show love to these people, not preach at them, and his son asked if the indigenous people attacked them what would he do? (its a famous conversation many have heard, but i love it) it went something like this..

son: what if they attack you, will you fight?

father: no

son: why not?

father: because they arent ready for heaven, we are.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRQhwYfXjN4&feature=related (at about the 3:20 mark in this video)

mary and joseph were called to do something ridiculous, completely insane. but they believed. the birth of jesus was so miraculous for so many reasons. and i believe miracles happen today, all the time. but we dont believe enough to do what God calls us to, so we dont see them happen... and then we are left wondering where God is.

I used to wonder where God is. Now i wonder where he's not.

believe.